Surveying and Towers for Triangulation With an Emphasis on the Bilby Steel Tower C. Barton Crattie, LS, CFM Note: this paper has been presented to a number of professional land surveying groups across the country over a number of years. With each presentation, more is learned and shared.

This paper and all research on Bilby, C&GS, tower building is in memory of Charlie Glover, long time builder, calculator and innovator for the United States

Coast and Geodetic Survey. (Passed December 24, 2016)

This paper will deal with the use of towers to achieve height for sighting over vegetation, physical features and the curvature of the earth and most especially the most successful and widely used tower in surveying history, the Bilby Steel Tower. Mr. Bibly’s remarkable and productive life will be briefly touched upon. Information garnered through interviews and materials provided by Jasper Sherman Bilby's remaining relatives tell the true story of the man's life, some of it not so saintly. The TCT (Transcontinental Traverse) was conducted utilizing many technical innovations, most especially the Electronic Distance Measuring Instrument (EDMI). Yet, it would not have been the success that it was without the tower, the essential tool of the survey. We’ll then progress to contemporary history and a multi-year project conducted by the Surveyors Historical Society. It was finally concluded in the fall of 2013, the relocation of a 74 foot Bilby steel tower to its now permanent home within a park in Osgood, Indiana, the hometown of Mr. Bilby. Just this last November, the State of Indiana erected a two sided highway historical marker in Osgood celebrating the achievements of this unassuming surveying genius. Bilby, The Man Jasper Sherman Bilby, a Civil War baby was born on a farm near Rushville, Indiana on July 16, 1864, just a two weeks before the crazy battle of the Crater over in Petersburg, Virginia. Nine months into his life, the closing papers would be signed at Appomattox. One of 9 children, Jasper left school after the 8th grade to help support the family. In 1884, he first hired on with the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey as a laborer and carpenter assigned to a first order triangulation party. A part of his duties was to construct wooden observation towers. His initial assignment was along the 39th parallel in Illinois. Young Jasper began at the bottom of the heap. Over the years, with his direct knowledge and experience in every aspect of leveling and triangulation, Bilby was able to overcome his lack of formal education and excel with the C&G Survey.

Marrying (Luella) in 1891, Mr. Bilby stayed with the "Survey" for about 10 years. At some point around 1894, he left the government and took a job as a supervisor at a stone quarry in Holton, Indiana. That endeavor lasted less than a year, with Mr. Bilby returning to the "Survey", now as a foreman on a C&GS triangulation party. This marked the resumption of what would be a long career on the "Survey". Prior to our current methods utilizing satellites and GPS receivers, a nationwide network of highly accurate control stations was being established by a virtual army of dedicated surveyors. The primary and preferred method used was triangulation, through repeated angles turned from station to station to station. And then moving up the line, again turning rep angles from station to station to station.

From a historical perspective, we're fortunate to have a paper entitled " Field Assignments of Jasper S. Bilby, Chief Signalman of the U.S. C&GS; September, 1884 - December 31, 1937". This paper is a meticulous listing of every assignment and location of Mr. Bilby's surveying chores spanning 53 years. Some might think this self-authored detailed list would be out of vanity. No, Mr. Bilby was simply a thorough and precisely minded individual. Mr. Bilby was truly the field man's field man. One of his many publications (as co-author) was "Precise Traverse and Triangulation in Indiana", a pamphlet. In 1923 he prepared Special Bulletin #93 “Reconnaissance and Signal Building”. It was his manual dealing with construction of wooden towers. Other than this, his one duty was to expand the survey. In a letter from the Chief of the Division of Geodesy, his abilities were extolled in a near embarrassing fashion: "In your letter of December 30, 1929, announcing that the end is in sight of the long campaign from Cairo (Illinois) to New Orleans, was no surprise to me. In fact I long since became immune to surprises, as far as your successful accomplishments of any undertaking is concerned... Many years ago I learned that all that was necessary to assure the success of a project was to place it in your charge and that neither heat nor cold, fire nor cyclones, flood nor drought would be able to impede your progress seriously.” Much can be done over a 53 year career. For Mr. Bilby, some of the highlights: graduated 8th grade, 39th parallel in Illinois and Indiana, first order work in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, work in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia, assistant to the astronomic party on the Mexico/US boundary, triangulation in Maryland, Delaware, South Carolina, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Time to begin a new century: Triangulation in Puerto Rico, then back to Kansas. On a first order triangulation survey between Beaufort, SC and Augusta, GA, Mr. Bilby acted as signalman in charge of reconnaissance. It is scary to see photographs of the trees this man was able to shinny up in order to establish a tower location. Under various titles with various responsibilities, Mr. Bilby worked along the Atlantic coast in North Carolina, then to Nebraska, South and North Dakota, Minnesota, Texas and Florida. He worked extensively on the "California-Texas arc". Triangulation from Salt Lake to Needles, CA and from Huntsville, AL to Little Rock, both in one year. In 1918 he was "busy harvesting, thrashing and planting the new wheat crop in accordance with war plans". Passing through Idaho, he ended up in Ketchacan, Alaska in 1921, only in the same year serving on the US/Canada boundary around the Lake of the Woods. In the latter part of 1922 and early 1923, Mr. Bilby assisted on a survey of a 20 mile base line in California. This baseline turned out to be the most accurately surveyed line ever run to date. It was used by Professor A.A. Michelson to determine the velocity of light. Pretty good for an 8th grade education. In all, a 1937 document claims the total miles of travel over Mr.Bilby's career to be 511,400 miles. 16,000 miles being on foot, 87,500 by wagon or buckboard, 22,500 on a horse or mule's back with the remainder being via ox, boat, railroad velocipede or motor automobile. It is estimated that he measured 47,950 miles of line. After 42 years of service and experience, in late 1926, Mr. Bilby decided to design and build a simple, portable and functional tower (signal) to achieve line of sight for first order triangulation surveys. Doggone all this cutting line and the darn wooden towers took far too long to erect and besides, they were simply too expensive and wasteful (many times being abandoned at the site following the observations). Many a barn was built with left over Government lumber.

Working with Aeromoter Windmill Company (to this day still making windmills), Mr. Bilby sought to design and construct a tower that could satisfy his three basic requirements: "the tower must have rigidity and stability against vibration and against twist in azimuth; the tower must be so constructed that it can be readily erected and taken down; and that the total weight of a completed tower should preferably be light enough that a single moderate-sized truck can transport it from station to station." By April, 1927, both Bilby and Aeromotor had exceeded all his original expectations. For the next 50+ years, the "Bilby Steel Tower for Triangulation" was one of the most widely used surveying tools throughout the entire world. They'd pop up like mushrooms in the evening and sometimes be gone before the next evening. Mr. Bilby's true contribution to the American people was finally solidified with the universal adoption of his tower. In September of that same year, Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover officially recognized the innovation and importance of Mr. Bilby's contraption. In a personal letter, future President Hoover wrote "The accelerated progress of the work (the survey), accomplished by the reduction in its costs, is highly gratifying to me and justify the commendation which this letter conveys." Hoover was a civil engineer by trade and the world renowned rock star engineer of his time. A document entitled "Cost Record of the Bilby Steel Tower" spanning June, 1927 until June, 1932 (the depression years) is concluded by stating the tower had been used on about 4000 triangulation stations to date. A wooden tower took 5-6 days to build, leaving about $650 worth of lumber on site when abandoned. A 103 foot Bilby steel tower could be erected in 5-6 hours (not days). The same tower could be torn down in 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The bottom line: Mr. Bilby's steel signal saved the U.S. government about $3,072,000 in depression dollars over this short 5 year period. Bilby, the tower In order to achieve line of sight on the earth's surface (sans vegetative and geographic obstructions) and to compensate for curvature of that surface as well as refraction, let's imagine we plan to make a transit sight over 20 miles of that surface. If we construct a tower on each end of our line of sight, each tower would need to be a minimum height of 58 feet at each of the two triangulation stations. Two towers; one at each end. If one decides to only build one tower under the same conditions, one fellow would be solidly grounded on the earth's surface and the other fellow would need to be 230 feet above that same surface. Transit and tape surveying methods are rife with inherent error and require much numerical hocus-pocus for error correction to be consistently dependable for a good and true answer. This is especially so when traversing great distances over extremes of topography and temperatures. Done correctly, triangulation eliminates many of the mechanical and man-induced errors that plagued surveying using these methods. For the most part, answers are from direct observations, not from some derived numeric conclusion. Triangulation allowed a crew to traverse a mountain top, a body of water and even a swamp, never placing the sole of their boots on the ground just surveyed. There were drawbacks to the triangulation methods. Terrain void of hills or peaks required an artificial and physical method for overcoming curvature, refraction, geography and any of Nature's other obstacles. Ergo: towers. The first practical towers used in this country (c.mid 1800's) were naturally made of wood. The tallest tower constructed of wood was built

in the Philippines and reached an impressive 239 wobbly feet. Because the observing instrument needed to be stable and void of any movement, two towers needed to be built independent of one another; this was necessary (more on this later in this article). In their quest to find a "tripod" standing as high as the tower being constructed, plus saving on materials, there is evidence of towers being built around trees with their branches removed. The occupancy tower (outer) was built around the living tree. The top of the living tree was cut off to a level that comfortably accepted mounting a working survey instrument. As early as 1844, (dual) towers of 30-45 feet were being constructed in the Chesapeake region. As part of the surveys around the Great Lakes, 4 sided towers were being constructed of steel gas pipes during the 1850's. There was a phenomenal amount of tower designs, the four sided Peck Tower developed in the 1960’s, a 50’ truck mounted observing tower (TMOT) designed by NGS as well as a trailer mounted tower (TMT) and the circa 1970’s Swedish Pole and Swedish G-Tower which crashed and burned. An excellent resource with great photographs can be found at: http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/survey_towers/welcome.html#background

In plain talk, the tower (Bilby): The towers are made of galvanized steel. The hardware used are standard stove bolts with 1/2" and 9/16" square heads. You actually are getting 2 towers. The inner tower is your "tripod". It is about 10 feet shorter than the outer tower. The inner tower is the "red" tower. All its parts have a painted red band and will have a number stamped on it. That makes it a unique part. The outer tower is the blue tower (RIBO). Standard heights are 24', 37', 50', 64', 77', 90' 103, and 116 feet, that's the inner tower. The light standard on the outside tower is 10 feet higher than the inner tower. An entire 90 foot tower weighs in around 5300 pounds and is loaded easily onto a modified flat bed pick-up. To build it, forget a crane. A winch drum was designed for the rear wheel of the haul truck in order to rig the heavier pieces as the tower gains height. A trained crew of five, with the right equipment but no crane can set four survey marks and construct both inner and outer towers in one day. Disassembly is even faster. (from NOAA's website) During construction, there were very few accidents, most occurring after the build. There are very few stories of injuries. Jerry Price, a former government surveyor, now living in Tennessee related a sad story of a lightkeeper (Jake Arnold) in downtown Philadelphia falling from a Bilby tower while Jerry was observing from beneath William Penn's statue in City Hall. Time hasn't lessened the impact of this terrible accident on those involved. The poor fellow never fully recovered and eventually took his own life. (More details of the tragic story can be found at AmeriSurv.com - I See Survey Control.) Why this particular tower design? It functions for one purpose, surveying. Sporting names such as spaghetti, wishbones, follies, a-board and such, each feature is designed to satisfy Mr. Bilby's original pure surveying objectives. Because wind blowing on guy wires cause vibration, the tower is designed to be self-supporting ideally. Pouring concrete is unnecessary for anchoring. However, one is required to dig a 3-4 foot deep hole to accommodate the ingenious system of underground support. While actually building a tower, a regular sized fellow can comfortably reach from one level to the other tightening bolts and handing steel to his work mates. Now here's some double duty; multi-tasking if you will. While the instrument

operator and the note keeper are performing their observations, 10 feet above their heads is a stack of lights or high powered lanterns, each pointing toward other towers observing yours. Many say one of the most valuable later developments was the seal-beam automobile headlight bulb. I also heard it said that many a night was wasted turning multiple D&R reps to someone’s porch light that got turned off at 9:00 p.m. Mr. Bilby considered just about everything in his thoughtful design of form following function. How many readers remember the beer leg from pulling tape in the old days? Mr. Bilby had the foresight to design around a potential beer leg 90 feet above the ground. Between the observation level and the signal level (right at HI) of the tower is a "C" shaped piece of cast. At each end of the "C" is a swivel bolt. After the tower is occupied and in use, if a backsight or foresight signal tower happened to be in direct line of sight with one of the 3 tower legs, one simply gave the "window" or "glass" a good kick, swinging it out of the way. No structural integrity was compromised. With his tower being a success, Mr. Bilby returned to his duties on the "survey". His first task back was using the tower to triangulate from South Dakota east to La Cross, Wisconsin, thence north from Albert Lee to Royalton Base in Minnesota. His duties included mapping the Gulf Coast from Corpus Christi, Texas eventually to Naples, Florida, thence east to Miami and Jacksonville. He then headed west to New Orleans, taking a right in a northerly direction proceeding through Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky and Illinois, on to St. Louis, Missouri. His work during those years centered around the Mississippi River and valley. In all, his work experience from year to year fills 11 single spaced typewritten sheets. In the depths of the depression (1930's, not 2008-2015), Congress established a mandatory retirement age for government employees. President Herbert Hoover exempted Bilby from the compulsory retirement requirement. Not just that, Mr. Bilby received a salary raise in July, 1932. He worked on the "survey" for 53 years until his voluntary retirement in 1937 as "Chief Signalman" for the "survey" at the age of 73. He passed away in his home state of Indiana in 1949, just a short distance from the 39th degree of latitude where he began his career; 85 good years and 2 good days of measuring and innovating on this earth. The very last Bilby erected by NGS was in 1984 in Windsor, Connecticut over station “Last Bilby”. A contemporary of mine and current NGS surveyor, Charlie Geohegan was on that build. This tower officially wrapped up the TCT. It was erected for ceremonial purposes only at the town firehall. A station was set and the town set up a commemorative plaque. But, the station was never observed, therefore, it's coordinates are not blue-booked. Charlie tells me there is an interesting “true” name for the station inscribed on the buried marker. The surface marker was long ago destroyed as part of a major firehall rehab project. Currently, I'm in a process of research. I wish to present this to the Surveyors Historical Society to propose a project to partner with the City of Windsor and most likely bust up some concrete or asphalt and locate Charlie's buried station. The Louisiana Bilby “Couba” Enter Surveyors Historical Society The Surveyors Historical Society (SHS) is composed of individuals with individual interests. Our annual gathering, the “Rendezvous” each year takes on a different time period, subject and aspect of surveying. Astronomy, geodetics, triangulation, plane tables, compasses,

chains, spring heads and any number of survey related topics are fodder for SHS discussion and study.

Former SHS administrator, Roger Woodfill is a born and bred, dyed in the wool Hoosier. His lifelong home town, Lawrenceburg, in southern Indiana is about 35 miles south of Osgood, Jasper Sherman Bilby’s home town. Because of Roger’s ethnocentricity and surveying interests, he became a huge Bilby fan. Just as enthusiastic a fan was survey author and speaker, Milton Denny. They both vowed to locate and save a Bilby tower. Together they followed leads from all corners of the country. It seemed to be that the bulk of any remaining towers had been relocated to military facilities. “Roger (and Milton). . . have been following leads for more than 15 years . . . towers supposedly in North Carolina, Florida, Montana (among many states) and even Australia . . . but have never been able to track a single one down.” Chas Langelan

There at least two standing on Cape Canaveral property. Just a hunch: The cape was the early origin of the TCT. I believe that NASA had the long term project (more in the presentation) so they were permanent builds.

The unique quality of the Bilby, its portability, naturally led to its rarity. If it was so easily loaded into the bed of a truck for relocating to another observation site, it was just as easily loaded onto a truck for transport to a scrap yard.

November 12, 2010 - “Are we still looking for a Bilby tower?” (email from Rich Leu, chair of SHS) It seems that in April of the previous year, NGS employee Steve Randall was traveling through a swamp just a little south of New Orleans and almost fell over a standing Bilby tower. Steve photographed the tower and posted it on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/12262796@N06/3533218157/ That’s where it was spotted by Leu. A flurry of mails was unleashed. Where, who, when? Let’s not lose it. Get it while we can. The end results: Crattie was able to get the information on the locals, not especially who owned it but at least the underlying property (State of Louisiana), finding and contacting knowing parties and began boat arrangements while Langelan (Maryland) contacted Dave Doyle (NGS) and learned they had no claim on the tower but had a strong interest historically. Roger Woodfill made the formal arrangements, coordinating the various interested parties. A letter from Shane Granier with the Louisiana Wildlife Management Area concluded with these words: “. . . we are in the process of trying to get started on some renovations. We actually discussed taking the tower down, so this could have been a disaster had we moved a little quicker”. Translated, it was scrap to the State and they were about to be rid of it. Within a month (plus 4 days), a delegation from SHS, some Louisiana surveyors, personnel with Louisiana Wildlife and a very fine retired USC&GS/NGS fellow were loading up into 3 boats at Bayou Sagnette, just across the river from New Orleans. It’s a short journey (appx. 10 miles) through the swamp, crossing Lake Salvadore and finally through some canals to the former, hurricane damaged headquarters of the Salvador/Timken Wildlife Management Area. Rounding a corner, there, in all of it’s 74 foot splendor stood the Bilby. Perched atop the light plate was a bald eagle. It was a glorious and hopefully, foretelling sight. Reconnaissance was concluded and the party made a bee line for terra firma, with dreams of tower relocation in their heads. We had found our grail.

For a more detailed account of this phase of the project, please go to the American Surveyor website, click on archives and pull up Vol.8, Issue 4: “Mr. Bilby’s Elegant Assembly; Being Both Beautiful and Sublime”. Phase Two – Taking it Down There was a matter on which absolutely everyone involved agreed. We had found a tower, it certainly appeared to be available, so SHS would do what was necessary to secure the treasure. The author of this paper, Bart Crattie, was placed in charge (by the SHS Board of Directors) of arranging the disassembly and recovery of the Louisiana Bilby. A reasonable budget was also appropriated. Everyone here today probably came by automobile, perhaps alone or in a carpool. Though they are so prevalent these days, I believe we fail to recognize how ubiquitous cell towers are. They are everywhere in urban areas and along the major travel ways. Should be a piece of cake finding a tower crew to take her down. There are plenty of tower contractors in Louisiana and the central Gulf area. Following a number of inquiries, a pattern became somewhat obvious. Once the story was laid down about an island 10 miles off the mainland out in a swamp, a tower that who knows how old the steel is, that has been standing in the weather for about 40 years and that it has historical significance, I sensed the lucrative tower building contracting company lost interest pretty quickly. It’s kind of like pricing an 8000 square foot lot in an area of town that you know is going to be a 2 day nightmare. You also know the lot isn’t even worth what the true cost of survey will be. It was in the guy’s voice, how is he going to find as nice a way as possible to tell me I’m crazy and my pockets aren’t deep enough. Nearly everyone contacted discussed the logistics of barging in a cherry picker. Many on the SHS Board were in favor of this approach. No one would consider going to work by hand with harnesses. When my calls encroached upon Arkansas soil, I realized pursuing commercial tower contractors was a dead end route. My colleague Robert (Windy) Cagle and I brainstormed on every survey research and workshop trip we took on how to move this tower, with frustration at every cell tower we spotted on the road. We just nearly arrived at the point of determining we would call a commercial contractor, pay the ridiculous price and seek to have the budget increased. During this time spent of not being able to locate the darn forest because there’s so many trees in the way, I had one of those “Wow – V8 moments”. Robert and I have a pretty good friend (other than being an U of Alabama graduate) that had been traveling around the southeast for the last few years building silo’s, tall mechanical structures and those un-named multi-story clusters of steel and tubing and supports and usually steam that accompany chemical plants and refineries. Stan Elrod. Stan was interested. He would need to take a couple of weeks off and round up a crew. His estimate was within our budget. Now about transportation. Fenstermaker, a local engineering and surveying firm in New Orleans had provided a boat for free on our initial recon trip. With subsequent changes in personnel, boat rides would no longer be free. They were the most reasonable we found but their proposed fee busted our budget.

With a little negotiation and a slight increase in the budget, it was time for a road trip to NOLA. It worked out that the time most convenient for all the parties concerned coincided with a planned SHS Board of Director’s meeting to be held in Jefferson (just west of Texarkana), Texas. Teter and Deb drove to our house in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Teter and I headed west leaving the ladies in Volunteer land. Following the Surveyors Historical Society BoD meeting in Jefferson it was back east through Cajun country to New Orleans. April 30, 2012. Feeling the trepidation that morning, a half hour had passed beyond our agreed rendezvous time. The tower crew and boat had not shown up; plus no one was answering cell phones. Then, in they all rolled like a parade. Two days had been set aside for taking the tower down. Our planning had us spending the second day ferrying the tower pieces to shore while the crew completed dismantling. The entire tower lay in individual pieces, sorted, stacked and painted the appropriate red and blue by Woodfill before 5:30 pm the first day (about 6.5 hours). That was proof positive the simplicity and genius of Bilby’s design. Once ashore, the tower was officially turned over to Ripley County, Indiana (Bilby's home), County Surveyor Jeff French and Doug Thayer, President of the Reynolds Foundation, both of Osgood, Indiana. One could say, technically, the Surveyors Historical Society had possession of the tower only during that brief boat ride from the island to the docks at Bayou Sagnette. For a more detailed account (co-authored by old tower man Jerry Price) of the second phase of this project please search “American Surveyor” magazine, click on Archives at the top and select Volume 9, Issue 7 – “End of an Era”. It’s the one with the thugs on the cover. The Final Phase The Tower Goes Up in Osgood Between the time the tower touched the shore of the Louisiana mainland and October, 2013, two major occurrences transpired. The first was that French and Thayer delivered all the parts to an Osgood machine shop where refurbishment and regalvanizing was begun. This rendered Woodfill's meticulous painting of red and blue for naught. As for the second . . . SHS was quite pleased with Stan Elrod and his LA (lower Alabama) crew. However, in hind sight, to a certain degree, it wasn’t the very best decision. The second important occurrence was an avalanche of emails between French and a close group of the original Coast and NGS surveyors. In my mind, they were all 80 years old and only capable of looking back at memories. I couldn’t have been more ignorant and more mistaken. SHS missed out on an actual historic study by not inviting those veterans of the survey (they would have done it for nothing, just for a chance to relive the most joyous periods of their lives) to New Orleans to take it down, the way Bilby’s were always taken down. One fellow, Ulis, related to me a story about a day taking towers down. His boss promised his crew a day off for every tower they took down after the first. They took 6 down in one day, all were 100’s or greater. Along with French, retired C&GS tower builders and experienced observers Ulis Jones(88) and Joe Lindsay organized an enthusiastic crew to erect the tower in Mr. Bilby’s

hometown. A fellow up east, Charlie Glover had a full set of anchors (without the oak plates). Not usual at all, the Couba Bilby had the anchors set in concrete and so there they remain. A date was set and a remarkable reunion convened. There is no resemblance between tower building and war. But when one spends his days relying on 3 other guys 100 feet plus off the ground with no harness and observing late into the night a bond develops. There is a strong bond between men that have had other people shooting at them. The tower builder has a completely different bond than that but it is just as strong. Tower crews (G-18, G-24 etc) lived a nomadic life. A very large number (probably not the majority) of the men traveled with their wives and children living in a trailer. In the early days maybe a tent. Constantly on the move, the went from trailer park to trailer park, meanwhile surveying our country on a grand scale. Some towns celebrated their arrival with interviews and newspaper articles. Yet in some towns, when the kids went to school, they would learn that their classmates weren’t allowed to befriend the “gypsies”. Coast surveyors and tower builders were often generational- fathers and sons. All the group that gathered in Osgood was family. Grown adults attending had been baby sat, fed and raised by the entire group over the years. They maintain their ties, have excellent memories of the past and have a great deal of affection and respect for each other. On that brisk and frosty October morning, with little discussion and no direction, each professional set in on chores and duties long unused but never forgotten. By the end of the day, the site was fully organized and the base (the lower levels with the rigid angle iron diagonals) was complete. The following day, by mid-afternoon, the Louisiana Bilby was topped out on Indiana soil. Modifications included brackets to hold the platform boards down in high winds and the removal of the lower 15 feet of ladder rungs. The light plate and instrument plate was aligned with Mike Fowler on the collimator. Everyone bid each other farewell and placed away a whole bushel basket or two of new memories. A final dedication of the tower, to the men on the great National Survey and to Jasper Sherman Bilby was held in Osgood, Indiana on June 14, 2014 beneath the lanky newcomer just in from New Orleans. At that time, NGS observed the tower, setting a brass disk at the base (there's something a little unusual about that disk). A reference station was also observed. Both are now bluebooked. For a more detailed account of the final phase of the Bilby project search “American Surveyor” magazine. Click on Archives at the top. Find Volume 11, Issue 1 (January, 2014); “A Journey’s End – Families and the Osgood, Indiana Bilby” Known History for Station Couba and the Tower

The following information is gleaned from a series of emails between individuals that had worked on the survey and spent many years erecting towers all over the world. The dialogues took place in May and June, 2012. Each interlocutor is either retired USC&GS or NGS or was still employed by NGS. Participants: Charlie Glover (retired), Dave Doyle (now retired January, 2013 as Chief Geodetic Surveyor, NGS), George Leigh (retired), Joe Lindsay (retired) and Jerry Price (former NGS but now in private survey practice).

Lindsay to Crattie (May 3, 2012): thnks for the info. xtremely interesting. i would virtually guarantee that the structure would not have withstood Katrina had it not been for the guy wire component. . .

Price to Crattie (May 11, 2012): You will be pleased to know that the COUBA Anchors were set in concrete and filled over with dirt. Ray Johnson was Building Foreman and Ray is picking through his memory to get me the fourth member of the building party.

In 1972, the station could be driven to. The anchors were set under the supervision of the Recon Man and Ray could not

remember his name but I am sure some of us old timers will come up with a name. Maybe Ray will remember his name and find out why the tower was not removed.

So you Guys don’t feel bad you would never got the anchors out with your shovel. Lindsay to Price (May 12, 2012): The revelation of the fact that the Station COUBA

anchors were set in concrete serves to render a fairly safe conclusion: There likely was an agreement in place to intentionally leave the tower standing as opposed as an oversight. This type of oversight used to happen, albeit rarely. The Rockville HQ Field Op chief in ’72 and the actual on site party chief could also be of assistance.

Price to Glover (May 12, 2012): After digging around I have come up with the name Eugene Beauchamp as the Recon man for the Louisiana project that set up The station COUBA. Ray Johnson was the building foreman and Eugene had arranged to set the base in Concrete before Ray and them got on site. He may have cut a deal with Louisiana Wildlife to build and leave the tower. Ray also said that John Early and him had built another similar tower for some communications company in Monroe, LA. Seems this base was also set when they went on a Saturday to build it. This 64 ft tower was also left standing.

Lindsay to Price (May 12, 2012): That was Party G-23. The field office was in the very small town of Leland, NC. I was a member of that party. In the fall of 1969, G-23 field foreman Mickey Humphrey was killed in a head on collision. He was driving his govt vehicle. The collision was with a private vehicle. Tragic.

Shortly after Mickey’s death I left the Coast Survey for a stint with the FL DNR. I rejoined G-23 in late 1970, Margate, FL. That’s when I met Mr. Beauchamp who was a triangulation reconnaissance man. He had been detailed to G-23 in my absence to temporarily fill the Field Foreman position that was vacant due to Mickey Humphrey’s death. In early 71 Ulyss Jones arrived to permanently fill this position on G-23. Mr. Beauchamp went back to his recon position. The horizontal control positions of Field Foreman and Recon were separate. They each had their unique duties & responsibilities. They normally performed on separate field parties.

Price to Doyle (May 13, 2012): Dave, I am helping prepare an article for publication on the Bilby Tower that was dismantled and has now been moved to Indiana to the home town of Mr. Bilby.

I have tracked down all but one of the G-23 crew who built the tower and Ray Johnson was building foreman. Eugene Beauchamp was the recon man and had arranged for the tower to be left standing. The anchors and base was in place when Ray arrived on site. The base was set in concrete and I guess that was why it withstood 16 hurricanes including Katrina. . .

If you have any details on the G-23 Party in 1972 and the work performed on this Louisiana Triangulation Arc inclusive of any maps of the other station locations I would appreciate help from the office.

Price to Crattie (June 10, 2012): AAGA is the American Association of Geodetic Surveyors and part of ACSM just like NSPS.

G-19 was the designation for the Field Party. At the time Couba was built there were two NGS parties in the area and from my research came up with G-19 building crew built the Tower. Most remember it since they had been building 116’s and it was like a vacation to get this little 64. Perseception changes once you build high steel and get on a 64 or 77 you feel like you can step off the thing it seems short/small. G-24 was in the area also.

I think we just refer to slim as Slim. Greg, Don and Slim were each running a leg and I do not think any one knows for sure who was running the ladder leg but Ray thinks it was Greg. leg number 2 and Three is questionable. Ray is for sure they drove to the station and in 1980 I was able to drive down in that area on shell roads built in the area to dispose of petroleum waste.

Crattie afterward: At the bottom of Price’s email printed out on paper, I have hand written:

Slim Hughes Greg Smith Don Ackers Gene Thacker The tower crew that worked on the Osgood rebuild was Ulis Jones, Joe Lindsay, Charlie

Geoghegan, Russ Arnold, Dennis Hoar, Dave Rigney, Kevin Geoghegan, and Bart Crattie. The ground crew (supervised by Jones) was Roger Woodfill, Robert Cagle, Rich Leu, Steve Okuley and George Leigh. Mike Fowler did the collimation. Jeff French of Versailles, Indiana was our excellent host and had his hands full throughout the entire process dealing with that crew.

Throughout this entire fabulous endeavor, riding thousands of miles thoroughly enjoying our great land, learning history, meeting new folks, celebrating a birthday on Bourbon Street, having the honor to meet and get to know folks that were the US Coast and Geodetic Survey as well as two of JS Bilby’s great-granddaughters all the while paying respect to this long forgotten elaborate erector set assembly, I oddly continued thinking of the eccentric German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer and the sublime. Schopenhauer nailed it, speaking in a way of the once forgotten yet now celebrated Couba Tower. "Many objects of our perception excite the impression of the sublime; by virtue both of their spatial magnitude and of their great antiquity and therefore of their duration in time, we feel ourselves reduced to naught in their presence, and yet revel in the pleasure of beholding them."

C. Barton (Bart) Crattie is a land surveyor in Georgia and Tennessee as well as a Certified Floodplain Manager. In 1977, he graduated from Murray State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Three Dimensional Design. Later, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, he received a Surveying Certification from Chattanooga State Technical Community College. Bart was on the Board of Directors of the Surveyors Historical Society for 6 year and currently serves as Secretary of that organization. Currently, Bart serves as NSPS Director for the State of Tennessee. He is a regular contributing writer for American Surveyor magazine.

C. Barton (Bart) Crattie 272 Valentine Drive Lookout Mountain, Georgia 30750 423-505-1358

bart@nilessurvey.com Addendum Resources from NOAA NOAA’s website has a massive accumulation of papers, materials, history, photos, technical bulletins and much just great interesting reading on its website. Long windy website addresses just don’t seem necessary anymore, they are so easily searchable. Just search NOAA and go to town. But for specifics, here a few highly recommended sites. Every technical publication since 1898 is available on the NOAA site. It’s just a little hard to find. Here’s the link: http://www.lib.noaa.gov/collections/imgdocmaps/cgs_specpub.html There’s a link to at least 344 Special Publications (SP). The only problem is that NOAA lists them numerically only, not by subject. Commander George Leigh (retired USC&GS and NOAA) has compiled a very friendly spreadsheet to aid in Bulletin location. Some research aids are listed at the SP site. For the present topic, seek out Special Bulletins: #93 Reconnaissance and Signal Building JS Bilby 1923 #120 Manual of First Order Triangulation 1926, 1935, 1943 #145 Manual of Second & Third Order Triangulation and Traverse 1929, 1935 #158 Bilby Steel Tower for Triangulation JS Bilby 1929, 1940 #62-3 Bilby Steel Tower for Triangulation James K. Richards 1965 #65 Instructions for Light Keepers 1920, 1926, 1936 #198 First Order and Second Order Triangulation in Tennessee (1927 Datum) 1935 #268 Plane Coordinate Projection Tables for Tennessee 1952 The Surveyors Historical Society has some very interesting and entertaining items related to Bilby Towers. There’s old 8 mm movies and some pleasant music and pictures of the dismantling of the Louisiana Couba Bilby tower. http://www.surveyorshistoricalsociety.com/ The Louisiana take down: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wgbAIm1PeEw Dave Lehman’s 1975/1976 films: Lindsay does the boogie on the light plate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6LPSK0PBHzQ Tower building in general http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OUTaC6dSxsg http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KAE2lA6mewo Other film/different set ups http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8cB1ygwza9w