R. J. Haney Heritage Park ~ Surveyor

The first Surveyors
Major Peter Burnet, Surveyor When Agnes McGuire wanted to propose a subdivision of a town site on her land to the emerging municipal government, she looked for a surveyor. Major Peter Burnet was qualified and practicing nearby, in the city of Enderby. He was highly experienced. He had laid out townships for the Dominion Government in Alberta and Saskatchewan and was commissioned to complete a survey in the neighbouring community of Armstrong as well. Born in Scotland in 1837, Burnet immigrated to Canada at the age of twenty. Settling in Beaverton, Ontario, he qualified as a land surveyor in 1861. The next year he married Caroline Foley and the couple eventually had two sons and three daughters. The Scottish immigrant and his English bride moved to Orillia, Ontario to open a practice. Eventually his son, Kenneth, joined him in practice as an articling student.	According to Early Land Surveyors of British Columbia, the senior Burnet surveyed in western Canada between 1880 and 1884. He earned the rank of Major of the York and Simcoe Regiment during the Riel Rebellion in 1885, a title he used for his remaining years. His son Kenneth likely assisted his father in Alberta. While the younger Burnet was in the area, he earned his commission in the Riel Rebellion Northwest Field Force. Major Burnet worked in the Enderby area until his death in 1910.

Land surveys The oldest type of survey has been used since the beginning of recorded history. When property ownership came into being, a need to measure land and set boundaries arose. According to Jack McCormac’s book Surveying the earliest survey methods developed along with astronomy, geometry, and mathematics because they were interrelated disciplines. He notes that the word Geometry is derived from the Greek words meaning “earth measurements”. Surveying is defined as the science of determining the dimensions and contour of the earth’s surface by the measuring of distances, directions, and elevations. Surveying is also used to stake out the positions and grades needed for construction of buildings, roads, dams, and other structures.	In 1871, when Walter Moberly surveyed the Shuswap for the Canadian Pacific Railway, he did more than lay out a railway route. When the railway was officially completed in 1885, and the last spike at Craigellachie driven, a land of opportunity opened. Within a year, steam travel regularly passed through the emerging community on the Salmon Arm of Shuswap Lake. Under the Dominion Lands Policy, land was opened up for homesteads along the Canadian Pacific Railway Belt. A male settler over the age of 21 or the head of household could apply for a quarter section of land or 160 acres for a registration fee of only $10. Conditions were attached: the applicant had to build a house, and clear and cultivate 30 acres within three years.

From Homestead to Townsite A young Montreal born clerk, Charles McGuire, watched the completion of the railway with interest. He was working in Kamloops for James Andrew Mara, owner of a supply and service company. Charles realized that, with the completion of the railway, his services at Mara’s would no longer be needed. He took his savings and scouted for property along the Salmon Arm Bay. Records held in the museum’s archives purport that Charles purchased the North East quarter of Section 14, Township 20, Range 10, West of the 6th Meridian from a Robert Henry Bryant. Was it a true sale? Or a finder’s fee? Bryant had his claim cancelled March 31, 1890. Local historians indicate that Bryant purchased his “homestead” from William Wallace, although records at the Provincial Archives indicate that Wallace did not hold legal title to the property. Salmon Arm’s first land flip was completed! Six months later Charles A. McGuire was successful in legally applying for and proving the conditions of homesteading the land along the CPR Right of Way. Fifteen years later the community of Salmon Arm emerged. Charles sent for the help of his younger brother, John, and opened a general store. He also landed a contract as Postmaster and mail service officially moved from a CPR shack to the store. Unfortunately, Charles became ill with consumption and died January 15, 1892 at the young age of 26.	In an astute move, Charles willed his property to his mother, Sarah Agnes Hudson McGuire, who arrived two months later on a westbound train with six of her children. In the years that followed more settlers arrived. In May 1905 a municipality was formed. An election followed and the first council met in June. Agnes McGuire was prepared. She wrote to the new council in August asking for a guarantee that if she had a 12-acre parcel surveyed for a townsite, she would be taxed at farm value until the lots sold. A married woman, without the right to vote, who held land only because she inherited it, was shaping the townsite and requiring special consideration. In December of the same year, JD McGuire advocated an amendment to his mother’s request. John asked for a five-year extension on farm status for unsold lots. The acreage would be used as a commons until that time. To sweeten the offer, Mrs. McGuire offered to donate a lot for a townhall. A by-law was passed the following February with little opposition.

How to survey Early surveyors used a compass and Gunter’s chain to lay out a survey, instruments that are rarely used today. Gunter’s chain is 66 feet long , named for the English mathematician Edmund Gunter and dates back to the 1600’s. The acre, a measurement still in common use, consists of ten square chains. The early surveyor’s compass had a magnetic needle that pivoted on a jeweled bearing. By the 1800’s sighting instruments called theodolites, or transits, replaced the surveyor’s compass. The instruments measured angles and determined directions by combining several tools: the telescope, compass, and level. Stationed on the transit, the telescope had to be flexible, pivoting horizontally and vertically. When it came time for a survey of Mrs. McGuire’s proposed townsite, previous surveys were gathered. The land had been subdivided into four parcels on a 1906 Department of the Interior Township Plan. Homesteads were typically 160 acres, a half-mile square, but because of the shoreline, Mrs. McGuire had less land. Her 148.6 acres also straddled the CPR line. Surveyor Burnet consulted the previous survey that had laid out the homestead, gathered his equipment, and went into the field on a clear night. Lantern in hand, he set his transit on one of the main property corners, likely over a 4 inch square wooden peg from an 1895 survey by J. Vicars, and dropped a plumb bob from the transit to a nail marking the centre of the wooden peg. The wooden corner pegs	were found in the NE and SE corners of Anges McGuire’s property line. Then Burnet took an astronomic reading, establishing the position of the corner by turning angles to the stars. This established the astronomic bearings for the rest of the survey. The next morning, in daylight, he and two assistants went to work. While one assistant held the stadia rod level, Burnet peered through the transit, taking measurements, and a third helper recorded the surveyor’s references. The two assistants then used the Gunter’s chain to measure the distance between surveyed positions. Later, back at the office, an official survey of the townsite was drawn up. Burnet laid out three streets, Harris, Palmer, and Hudson, and three avenues: Shuswap, McLeod, and Alexander. His employer, the transplanted Montreal matriarch, had quietly claimed a moment in history. Hudson was Agnes’ maiden name and Alexander her husband. By contrast, today a new age of surveying has been reached. Global Positioning System, or GPS, combines the use of 24 manmade satellites, radio receivers, computers, and other technical machines to establish a survey. Satellites transmit signals that indicate their positions relative to receivers. Computers use these signals to determine the lengths of lines. To establish a longitude and latitude, three satellites must signal a receiver. Using four satellites, elevations are also computed. The District of Salmon Arm, soon to become the City of Salmon Arm, uses GPS in its Mapping Department.