Vice President Ken Allred attends Rendezvous 2005
Spokane, Washington, USA, September 29 - October 2,
2005
Ken Allred, FIG Vice President, recently made a presentation on
The Art of Surveying at Rendezvous 2005 in Spokane Washington.
Rendezvous 2005 was organized by the Surveyors Historical Society to
commemorate “Surveying the Northwest with David Thompson.” The three
day conference had presentations on the surveying of the Canada United
States boundary including a special presentation on the determination of the
“Northwest Corner” of the Lake of the Woods. Other presentations
included presentations on the survey instruments used by Thompson in his
exploratory surveys of western Canada and the northwestern part of the
United States and a comparison of David Thompson expeditions and
accomplishments versus those of the Lewis & Clark expedition.
Features of the conference included the opening of an exhibit of the
Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, which featured the exploratory surveys
of David Thompson who has been labeled “the greatest land geographer of
all time”, in recognition of his survey and mapping of 1.2 million
square miles of largely uncharted Indian lands. This exhibit will run until
September, 2006. Also included were displays and demonstrations of the
sextant and other instruments and items from early exploration and the fur
trade in the early 19th century. A hands on demonstration of the use of a
solar compass was the subject of a half day seminar.
Jack Nisbet, author of Sources of the River – Tracking David
Thompson across North America was also a featured speaker. Jack is a
passionate researcher of David Thompson and released his second book Mapmaker’s Eye – David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau during the
rendezvous.
Ken Allred’s presentation on The Art of Surveying featured a
series of slides of historical and modern day survey art ranging from
Babylonian boundary stones and the Rope Stretchers to the Canadian
Centennial monuments and monuments of David Thompson and Peter Fidler.
Several painting of survey scenes and historical snapshots relating to
surveys and surveyors were also included. His narrative portrayed the role
of the surveyor as an explorer, creator and preserver of events that have
great importance to society.
The Surveyors Historical Society is a society based in Indiana, dedicated
to the public purposes of preserving historical surveying instruments,
artifacts, records and memorabilia. SHS is also dedicated to educating the
general public about the history of surveying. The Society has developed
programs to honor historical surveying points, and the surveyors who have
made significant contributions to the profession through the implementation
of a public marker program. SHS cooperates at all opportunities with persons
and organizations that share the public benefit purpose of education
concerning the history of all branches of the science of surveying. SHS
holds an annual rendezvous to commemorate some historical aspect of the
surveying profession.
Ken Allred
Vice President of FIG
21 November 2005 |
