| The Great Depression of the 1930s significantly | | | | programs, many of these programs would not |
| impacted virtually every occupation. Land | | | | have been considered were it not for the |
| surveyors and civil engineers were not immune to | | | | pressing need to create employment. Often the |
| the economic downtown, and thousands soon | | | | projects were water related, including the |
| found themselves looking for work in | | | | establishment of horizontal and vertical control |
| once-booming towns. By 1933, the Federal | | | | lines on rivers, canals, and dams. Although some |
| Emergency Relief Administration, a government | | | | surveys continued under this program as late as |
| agency, contacted the United States Coast | | | | 1939, in most states the surveys were |
| & Geodetic Survey, or C&GS, to | | | | completed by early 1935. Statistics through June |
| implement a program to create employment | | | | 1934 show that 20,000 miles of leveling, 1,200 |
| opportunities for surveyors and engineers | | | | miles of triangulation, and 14,000 miles of traverse |
| The initial goals of the C&GS program | | | | had been completed as part of the project. |
| included employment of up to 15,000 surveyors | | | | In one of many similar attempts to employ land |
| and engineers. Despite an initial shortage of precise | | | | surveyors during the Great Depression, Georgia |
| surveying equipment and vehicles needed for | | | | commissioned a large-scale survey which led to |
| transportation to survey sites, the program was | | | | the first time in the state's history that all of the |
| formally established in November of 1933. In | | | | land and boundaries were measured and |
| many cases, C&GS borrowed unused | | | | monumented. The Wisconsin Land Economic |
| equipment from railroads, state highway | | | | Inventory, often referred to as the 'Bordner |
| departments, municipalities, and construction | | | | Survey,' is another example of Depression-era |
| companies. Still, this equipment often did not offer | | | | surveying projects. The goal of this project was |
| the level of precision to which surveyors were | | | | to inventory Wisconsin's land resources. Field |
| accustomed | | | | workers, usually foresters, worked with land |
| Work began nearly immediately in every state of | | | | surveyors to map current land use across the |
| the country under the auspices of the Civil Works | | | | entire state. Each map created as part of the |
| Administration (CWA). However, because the | | | | Bordner Survey covers one survey township. |
| program was founded in November, work began | | | | Most surveys throughout the country began or |
| in Winter, traditionally the least productive season | | | | stopped at known C&GS survey |
| for surveying. Federal funding dried up by January | | | | monuments, where possible. The monuments |
| of 1934, resulting in orders to cease hiring new | | | | used for Depression-era surveys under |
| surveyors. Nearly 10,000 skilled surveyors and | | | | C&GS are brass disks lettered with the |
| engineers continued on the project, under all but | | | | words "state survey" in addition to recording the |
| four states. | | | | usual survey information. Surveys in the states of |
| Projects undertaken by surveyors during the | | | | North Carolina and Pennsylvania used brass |
| Great Depression varied widely between states. | | | | monuments cast with folk legends particular to |
| As with many other Depression-era work | | | | those states. |