| Although at first you may assume that there | | | | American surveyor, was appointed by President |
| haven't been any important or famous land | | | | George Washington in 1789 for the first survey |
| surveyors or land surveys in the United States, | | | | of what would become Washington D.C., the |
| the truth is that many of the borders that come | | | | capitol of the nation. This survey, between 1791 |
| into play in your daily life were set by land | | | | and 1793, laid the groundwork for all of the |
| surveys. | | | | national government buildings. |
| Though the boundary of each individual piece of | | | | Another important land survey in the United |
| property is usually set by surveyors, on a larger | | | | States was the Lewis and Clark Expedition. |
| scale, land surveys are much more important. | | | | Although you may think of them as explorers, |
| Take, for example, the Mason-Dixon line. What | | | | they detailed the boundaries, rivers, mountains, |
| began as a simple property dispute between two | | | | and other features in what would become the |
| families eventually came to be the distinguishing | | | | western half of the United States, certainly an |
| line between the Northern and Southern United | | | | important land surveying act. With considerable |
| States in the decades leading up to the Civil War. | | | | accuracy given their time period and the |
| Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon surveyed this | | | | constraints of traveling across completely |
| line, the boundary between Maryland and | | | | unknown lands, which made it extremely difficult |
| Pennsylvania, from 1763 to 1785. In the debate | | | | for Lewis and Clark to know exactly where they |
| over the Missouri Compromise in 1820, those | | | | were at all times, they surveyed the west from |
| above the line were "free states", while those | | | | 1804 to 1806. The land they surveyed, obtained |
| below were "slave states." Until the present day, | | | | through the Louisiana Purchase, included parts of |
| this line is still used to distinguish the North from | | | | 14 current-day United States, a substantial |
| the South. | | | | amount of land. At the time of the purchase, it |
| In 1777, in the midst of the Revolutionary War, | | | | was not even known exactly how much land |
| George Washington appointed Robert Erskine to | | | | existed to the west; the Lewis & Clark |
| survey the fledgling nation. The maps Erskine and | | | | expedition surveyed this area, giving the first |
| his team developed were the first official maps of | | | | complete look into the layout of the land that had |
| the United States; they assisted greatly in military | | | | been purchased. |
| operations and other activities as the new nation | | | | Countless other lesser-known land surveys played |
| was getting started. As the first official maps, the | | | | important roles as the colonies were first |
| Erskine maps laid the groundwork onto which | | | | beginning, as well as during westward expansion, |
| each later survey added new information. | | | | laying out the boundaries between each |
| Other important land surveys dealt with the land | | | | jurisdiction. In a few centuries, their original lines |
| not as it was being settled, but as it was being | | | | would become the boundaries between the |
| built upon. Land surveys can be useful not only in | | | | continental United States. If these boundaries had |
| settling boundaries, but also for deciding how to | | | | been drawn differently due to a different team of |
| build on a given area of land. For example, | | | | surveyors, you may actually have been living in a |
| Benjamin Banneker, a self-taught African | | | | different state right now. |