Does anyone have a rough idea of what part of Oregon and other parts of the country were surveyed under the Oregon Manual of 1851? I assume that only a part of Oregon was surveyed under this manual and that the 1855 Manual and other subsequent manuals finished the rest of the area.
The first 108 miles of the Nebraska/Kansas (6th PM) baseline was supposedly initially surveyed in 1854 under the 1851 Oregon Manual, but was resurveyed in 1855 under the 1855 Manual. I am trying to establish an idea of what parts of the country used the Oregon 1851 Manual even though it was specifically labeled for 'Oregon'.
Parts of California
I think the 1855 instructions were just some modifications to the 1851 instructions. I think they did away with putting tree seeds on the mounds and changed some of the sizes of the mounds.
To shorten this up, the 1855 instructions has about 1/3 of the information that the 1851 has.
1864 instructions is also short.
1868 is a large number of pages and it also included that a copy of these instructions will be included as part of each new contract.
When did each survey contractor get the new information? Was it before he started his work or after, or did they think keeping the old way till there work was done would be better than change midstream?