| Early maps of the Americas were crude, based | | | | Individual colonies also employed independent |
| on observation and approximation of distances. As | | | | surveyors to verify landowner surveys as well as |
| settlements became more entrenched in the New | | | | conduct surveys on behalf of the government. |
| World and competition for land increased between | | | | These individuals were very well respected and |
| the French, English and Spanish, the methods and | | | | admired, and the position of Surveyor-General |
| precision of the land surveys also improved; | | | | became a very desirous for upward-climbing |
| surveys and mapping were now conducted by | | | | member of Colonial society, especially in the larger |
| professional surveyors and cartographers. These | | | | cities such as New York and Philadelphia. |
| high quality maps were valuable to their | | | | Perhaps the most famous example of surveying |
| respective countries, as they could advance the | | | | in Colonial America was performed by two men |
| position and land claims of each country with a | | | | brought over from England to settle a border |
| stake in the New World. | | | | dispute. Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon were |
| Cartographers and surveyors in Colonial America | | | | brought in to survey and make official the border |
| attempted to use the established European | | | | between Pennsylvania and Delaware, and also end |
| methods, but they were thwarted by the vast | | | | the disputes over the land between the Penns of |
| wilderness that the New World presented them | | | | Pennsylvania and the Calverts of Maryland. |
| with. Instead of using a theodolite, a surveyor's | | | | Mason's specialty was astronomy, and Dixon's |
| tool used to mark the position of a celestial | | | | surveying, and they not only brought with them |
| object on the horizon as a measuring marker, | | | | expertise and impartiality, they also brought with |
| Colonial surveyors instead came to rely on the | | | | them new technology. The zenith sector, which |
| circumferentor, or surveyor's compass, because it | | | | observed the passage of stars crossing the |
| was more portable and much more usable in | | | | meridian near the zenith, and a new field clock, |
| densely wooded than the bulky and cumbersome | | | | loaned to them by the Astronomer Royal of |
| theodolite. | | | | Great Britain, which was far more advanced than |
| As settlers pushed farther and farther inland, and | | | | anything the Americans had in their possession. |
| the population of the Colonies swelled, there | | | | The final line was established on October 7, 1767, |
| became an even greater need for accurate | | | | and was more than 233 miles long. Even more |
| surveys and maps. All sorts of boundaries needed | | | | important, the new technology and techniques |
| to be set and verified, from individual land plots, | | | | Mason and Dixon introduced to the American |
| to county and state borders, to official boundaries | | | | surveyors would change and improve the |
| between different European colonies. From this | | | | methods they used when surveying. |
| need a new group of surveyors emerged - the | | | | When the initial settlers and surveyors arrived in |
| colonial landowner. They were educated, and the | | | | the New World, they had no idea the challenges |
| best way of solidifying their own properties and | | | | and terrain they would face in trying to carve a |
| holdings was to have accurate surveys of their | | | | nation out of a wilderness. But the efforts of |
| own regions in place. Notable examples of | | | | these early cartographers and surveyors have |
| landowner-turned-surveyor include George | | | | shaped the nation we know today. |
| Washington and Thomas Jefferson. | | | | |