On August 23, 1884, by order of the Commander of the Department of Texas, an expedition was organized to "complete the primary triangulation and latitude determinations of the country west of the Rio Pecos, Texas, and to obtain general knowledge of that region". The expedition was under the command of Maj. W.R. Livermore, US Army Corps of Engineers, chief engineer officer of the Department of Texas, with staff including three Second Lieutenants: Ives, Finley, and Flynn. At Fort Davis, Major Livermore's party was augmented by five cavalry privates, mounted and equipped, and one non-commissioned officer and by five infantry privates and one non-commissioned officer.
The party was completed by "six Seminole Negro-Indian scouts" from Fort Clark. These were almost certainly members of the unit known as the Seminole Scouts who had in the previous decade made extensive reconnaissances of the Big Bend under the command of Lieutenant John L. Bullis.
The expedition left Fort Davis on September 13 with two army wagons, one escort wagon, one spring wagon, two instrument carts, six pack mules, and four saddle horses in addition to the horses of the cavalry soldiers, reaching Marfa where they set up a supply camp.
From that point, Major Livermore and his party traveled around the Big Bend, mapping the country by triangulation. Livermore himself, accompanied by Lt. Flynn and, presumably, others measured angles from the tops of what he called "Cathedral and Baldy peaks", Baldy being what is now known also as Mt. Livermore.
According to Livermore's report, the expedition was prompted by the fact he had in July of 1884 finally received the instruments requisitioned the previous year.
I've attached a pdf below of Major Livermore's account published in the report made to Congress upon the progress of various work of the Corps of Engineers, including upon his work mapping West Texas in 1884 and 1884.
Although the NGS datasheet for PID BQ0415 gives the following data for a triangulation station on the top of Mt. Livermore, aka Baldy Peak, and credits the C&GS as the originator of the chiseled station mark, I wonder if this is really Major Livermore's station on Baldy Peak from 1884. There is a bronze tablet placed by the C&GS in 1917, station "BALDY, 1917" (PID BQ0414) less than 20 ft. distant from the chiseled triangle.
BQ0415_MARKER: T = CHISELED TRIANGLE
BQ0415_SETTING: 0 = UNSPECIFIED SETTING
BQ0415_STABILITY: D = MARK OF QUESTIONABLE OR UNKNOWN STABILITY
BQ0415
BQ0415 HISTORY - Date Condition Report By
BQ0415 HISTORY - 1917 MONUMENTED CGS
BQ0415
BQ0415 STATION DESCRIPTION
BQ0415
BQ0415'DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1917 (EHP)
BQ0415'STATION IS ON BALDY PEAK, ABOUT 25 MILES NW OF MARFA.
BQ0415'
BQ0415'STATION IS MARKED BY TRIANGLE 6 INCHES ON A SIDE AND 1 INCH
BQ0415'DEEP WITH SMALL KNOB IN MIDDLE, CUT IN ROCK WITH LETTERS U.S.
BQ0415'
BQ0415'STATION BALDY IS DISTANT 5.60 METERS (18.4 FEET)
BQ0415'S 87 DEG 44 MIN W. A SMALL HOLE IS DISTANT 0.505 METER (1.66 FEET)
BQ0415'IN SAME AZIMUTH.
The description of C&GS station "Baldy" credits the triangle to the USGS and mentions another mark in the form of a small hole.
BQ0414_U.S. NATIONAL GRID SPATIAL ADDRESS: 13REP7918389509(NAD 83)
BQ0414
BQ0414_MARKER: DS = TRIANGULATION STATION DISK
BQ0414_SETTING: 66 = SET IN ROCK OUTCROP
BQ0414_STABILITY: A = MOST RELIABLE AND EXPECTED TO HOLD
BQ0414+STABILITY: POSITION/ELEVATION WELL
BQ0414_SATELLITE: THE SITE LOCATION WAS REPORTED AS SUITABLE FOR
BQ0414+SATELLITE: SATELLITE OBSERVATIONS - 1986
BQ0414
BQ0414 HISTORY - Date Condition Report By
BQ0414 HISTORY - 1917 MONUMENTED CGS
BQ0414 HISTORY - 1942 GOOD CGS
BQ0414 HISTORY - 1977 GOOD NGS
BQ0414 HISTORY - 1986 GOOD
BQ0414
BQ0414 STATION DESCRIPTION
BQ0414
BQ0414'DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1917 (EHP)
BQ0414'ON BALDY PEAK, ABOUT 25 MILES NW OF MARFA, 15 MILES E OF
BQ0414'VALENTINE, 10 METERS (33 FEET) E OF W END OF NARROW-TOPPED
BQ0414'RIDGE ABOUT 3 METERS (10 FEET) WIDE AT STATION, AND 3 METERS
BQ0414'(10 FEET) E OF LARGE HOLE. STATION MARKED BY A STANDARD DISK
BQ0414'WEDGED IN A DRILL HOLE IN OUTCROPPING BEDROCK. REFERENCE MARK
BQ0414'IS A STANDARD DISK WEDGED IN A DRILL HOLE IN OUTCROPPING
BQ0414'BEDROCK, ON THE S SIDE OF CLIFF 1/2 METER (2 FEET) LOWER THAN
BQ0414'AND 5.43 METERS (17.8 FEET) FROM STATION S 63 DEG 23 MIN E.
BQ0414'BALDY (U.S.G.S.) IS DISTANT 5.60 METERS (18.4
BQ0414'FEET) FROM STATION N 67 DEG 44 MIN E. A SMALL HOLE IS
BQ0414'DISTANT 5.095 METERS (16.72 FEET) IN SAME AZIMUTH.
Group of Seminole Scouts (date uncertain, but probably between 1883 and 1900) possibly at Fort Clark in Texas.
I'm visiting the area via Google Earth this morning. Looks like pretty country. Would be a long hike to pack the GPS gear to the peak, but the view would be spectacular.
Mark Mayer, post: 380564, member: 424 wrote: I'm visiting the area via Google Earth this morning. Looks like pretty country. Would be a long hike to pack the GPS gear to the peak, but the view would be spectacular.
On a clear day, from station "Baldy" you should be able to see El Capitan peak near the Texas/New Mexico border, about 100 miles distant. Major Livermore probably saw most of the major peaks in West Texas from there.
Here's a link to the view from the top of Mt. Livermore in the haze of modern seeing courtesy of the burning of hydrocarbons in Mexico and Texas.
Kent McMillan, post: 380555, member: 3 wrote: credits the C&GS as the originator of the chiseled station mark
I've seen other examples and think it's quite common that C&GS to used marks that were in existence when they came through to do the measurements, and MONUMENTED on the data sheet really means the date they first took notice of them, not that C&GS necessarily placed the mark.
So I'd agree your speculation about Livermore's team placing the triangle is quite likely.
BTW, for any who are interested in US Army life on the Texas frontier during and after the so-called Indian Wars, this account contains some details you are unlikely to find anywhere else.
One of the figures was Henry O. Flipper. an African-American graduate of West Point, 50th in a class of 76 in 1876. Lt. Flipper later became a Mineral Surveyor.
Bill93, post: 380575, member: 87 wrote: I've seen other examples and think it's quite common that C&GS to used marks that were in existence when they came through to do the measurements, and MONUMENTED on the data sheet really means the date they first took notice of them, not that C&GS necessarily placed the mark.
So I'd agree your speculation about Livermore's team placing the triangle is quite likely.
I now recall that somewhere in my files I have the records of a resurvey made in 1889 that gave an angle measured to "monument" on Baldy Peak. Given what I've concluded about the practices of the day, that "monument" was probably a tall rock cairn built by Major Livermore's party over their station. When I get a chance, I'll check my records to see whether the tie from lines that I found marked on the ground by rock mounds built by the 1889 resurvey shows which of the three stations on Mt. Livermore mentioned in the NGS database was probably the monument in place then. Since my work was tied to NAD83 via the CORS network, that should be easy to do.
