New Mexicos boundary with Texas is commonly referred to as the Clark boundary. This designation ignores the fact that most of the surveying…
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With Compass and Six-shooter (Rewritten Nov. 2003)
Anybody that likes John Wayne movies will love Jack Hays. In San Antonio he was called "a gentleman of purest character and of…
Hassler’s Foot
"It is ordained that three grains of barley, dry and round, make an inch, twelve inches make a foot, three feet make an…
A Death in Mesilla
The quaint little town of Mesilla, or La Mesilla as it was called at the time of its founding, started its life in…
The Una de Gato Forgery
Opportunity came to Jesus Maria Gomez y Lopez on a memorable day in March 1862. While Confederate troops occupied Santa Fe, the nineteen…
John W. Garretson
While Surveyor General William Pelham tended his duties in Santa Fe, the initial fieldwork in the establishment of the rectangular survey system in…
And the Sun Stood Still
And he said in the sight of Israel: Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon and the sun stood still; (Josh. 10:12-13)
New Mexico’s Historic East Boundary
By an Act of Congress, generally referred to as the Compromise of 1850, New Mexicos east boundary was set at the 103rd meridian….
That Dumb Surveyor
Remember, son, many a good story has been ruined by oververification. James Gordon Bennett, Editor; New York Herald (1835-67)
J. H. Dorroh and the Registration Act
New Mexico in 1917 had become one of the first states in the U.S. to license land surveyors, but by 1930 it was…