A colleague of mine found a manuscript by E. T. Abbott, an old-time Minneapolis-based surveyor and engineer. In 1937, when he was 90, the Minnesota Historical Society asked him to write down his memories of the old days. He typed the account himself, by the look of it.
Abbott's work was mostly engineering surveys, and he didn't say much about the actual process of getting the field work done. But he had some entertaining recollections of the age of railroad barons. Here are a couple of sample pages.
There was a famous (in Australia at least) surveyor by the name of Len Beadell that wrote a number of books.
His title of the last true Australian Explorer is very apt and his style of story telling is very enjoyable to read.
More here ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Beadell ). His family look after his legacy and more can be read here ( http://www.beadell.com.au/ ).
I have a book called "Captain Bullen's War" which is a diary kept by an Australia Army surveyor in Vietnam which was a great read.
http://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780732288433/
Kent McMillan, post: 395520, member: 3 wrote:
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Thomas Pynchon's "Mason & Dixon"
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I have one called "Drawing the Line" by Edwin Danson that I thought was a good read.
https://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Line-Surveyed-Famous-America/dp/0471385026