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CLS. Engineers Near End Of Perilous
International Line Between United States and Canada Is Long
est Straight-Line Boundary Between Any Two Nations in the
World. Nine Years of Arduous Toil Have Been Required to
Complete It. Monuments Had to Be Set on Highest Peaks of
Rocky Mountains.
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DT WILXJAM L. A LTDORrWt
THIS ta a story of tli pcrlla aod
adventures of Vncls Sam's en
gineers while running; the Inter
national boundary Una between the
United States and Canada, a work ei
tending; over a period of nine years,
the final lap of which will be com
pleted the coming; Summer. In the first
place It Is the lonreat straight line
land boundary between any twj nations
In the world. It runs straight as an
arrow files, along the lh parallel
from the Ureat Lakes to the t'aclflo
Ocean for a distance of 110 m'lee and
last Summer the work was completed
up to the Ited River, 10 miles from the
Lake of the Woods, a small lake con
nected with Lake Superior.
The work was done by Americana
and Canadians working together, and
the story of the many dangers and
bardahlpa encountered by the men la
full of Interest from start to finish.
In this article It la the Intention of
the writer to tell of the work on that
par of the International boundary from
the Oreat Lakes to the Pacific CoaaL.
reserving- for a later article the atory
of rvnnlnr the line between Alaaka
and Canada, which will probably be
of greater Interest because many
places were absolutely tnacceeelble to
man. and the work bad to be done by
what la known as the photo-topo-graphlo
method, a system of surveing
with the aid of the camera.
Commissioner O. IL Tlttman. of the
Coast and Oeodetlc Survey for the
t'nited States, and Commissioner W.
T. King, of Canada, were the men In
trusted with the carrying oat of the
plans, with the exception of that part
of the line running through the Great
Lakea. In 10J. when actual work
started, the men and equipment had to
be gathered from all sections of the
Northweet. After the party had finally
assembled, everything was transported
by pack animals to the point where
eurveyrnf waa to begin, the highest
point of the Rocky Mountains. The
scene about thta time around the
campa waa similar to a wild weat ahow
giving exhibition In broncho buatlng.
with the cowboys trying to get young
unbroken horses In shape to be ridden,
and the breaking of pack animals ao
thev would be able to carry a pack
without breaking their necka.
Finally, with E. C. Bernhard aa chief
topographer, and H. Sinclair, aa chief
astronomer, the party of about 75 men.
Americana and Canadians, began the
work of transporting equipment and
supplies. Starting from the town of
Gateway. In Montana, they forced their
way through deep anowa In wild moun
tain paaaee. to Flathead Valley, where
the first real difficulty waa met and
a boat had to be built on which to
carry the material acrosa the roaring
Flathead River, while the horses had
to awlrn acrosa In the frigid water.
Taklaat l Ardaraa Work.
It waa the Intention to begin work
from one of the original boundary
monuments on the summit of the high
est peak of the Rocky Mountalna.
which baa been aet by the Northwest
ern Bounday Commission aome SO odd
years ao, but thm commission did-et
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complete the actual marking on the
ground, leaving thla to be done by a
later generation. The plan of the work
aa followed out waa aomethlng like
thla: After the first monument on the
summit of the Rockies had been lo
cated, the neat monument weat waa
then found and these polnta were to
be joined by a straight line, the inter
vals between to be marked by alum
inum bronae monumenta every four
ml lea. Thta waa the moat diffi
cult part of the work, aa the straight
line crossed many almost Inacceaalble
mountain aummlta.
To go back a little. The boundary
line from tlfe summit of the Rocky
Mountalna to the Gulf of Georgia had
been located by the former rommla
alon about 11(2. At thla time the coun
try for the moat part was an unknown
wilderness, and It waa barely possible
for the men to locate the th par
allel by aatronomlcal observations
from such polnta aa were accessible.
This left long atretchea of country,
from five to 17 miles. In which no at
tempt had been made to mark the
boundary on the ground. While the
early englneera had definitely aettled
the location of the boundary by atat
Ing that the boundary line should be
atralght Unea Joining the monumenta
located already and shown on the mapa
of that commission. It waa the duty
of the men of this party to Join
these widely separated monuments -by
straight lines to cut a vista 10 feet
wide, ten feet on either side of the
line, through dense foresta; to locate
the position and erect permanent mon
umenta at Intervale of not more than
four miles: to extend the ayatem of
trlangulatlon. that la to determine the
latitude and longitude ot the various
monuments, and make a topographle
map covering the country for two mllea
on either aide of the line.
In running the boundary line in a
straight line th men had to actually
chop their way through more than tuO
miles of virgin forest and underbrush
which had never before known foot
steps of man. In fact, a way had to
be cut through a wilderness, aa one
of the men explained to mo, as dense as
the great forests of Africa. In order to
reach the varioua polnta where monu
menta had to be eet up to mark the In
ternational boundary line. In many
placea It was found Impossible) to reaoh
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the boundary line in any way except
on foot.
After the straight line Joining the
two adjacent monumenta had been lo
cated and signals were erected on per
manent polnta. the next work waa to
cut the vista. Thla work waa usually
superintended by a transit man. ac
companied by 10 or IS expert ax men;
the transit men following cloaei aa
possible. Here la where the men got
their first taate of the kind of work
ahead of them. All the trees were
covered with anow, and the first blow
of the ax brought down great quanti
ties of snow, which weuld trickle down
the back of the neck bf the ax men.
In some cases trees eight .to ten feet
In diameter at the base were encoun
tered, when tmmamae aawa operated by
alx or elttht men were brought into
action.
Cek Has Cleaw Call.
It waa about thla time, after the work
had gotten well under way, that every
body In camp suddenly cam to the
conclusion that the cook waa the most
Important part of the whole works.
On one occasion an Inexperienced cook,
being abort of yeast, thought of a plan
to uae aome dried hops by running
them through a chopping machine, and
afterwards using the hope to raise hla
bread. In consequence, the men, after
eating the bread, awelled up like bal
loons and. but for the timely arrival
of the man in charsre, a necktie party
would have eurely followed. The chief
finally auoceded in pacifying the men,
ejid then Installed a competent cook,
when no further demonstrations ot thla
character were heard.
Many Interesting Incidents are re
lated by the engineers who took part
In thla work, and who are now In
Washington getting ready for their
laat trip to the Northwest, which will
put the finishing touchea to thla great
work. E. C. Barnard telle of a time
near the end of laat aeaaon when the
party was more than a hundred mllea
from Ita base of auppliea, and the pack
train with food had become lost. Al
though their auppliea were exhausted
the men preferred to remain and com
plete the work for more than two days,
subsisting on nothing but dried prunes,
and after completing thla part of the
work had to climb more than 000 feet
etralsht up the aide of a mountain in
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order to reach one of their camps
where food 'could be secured.
Shortly after this the whole party
started one morning for a' trlangula
tlon station on the top of one of the
smaller mountains In the Rockies.
Everyone though the trip there and
back could be made In a day. ao they
started for the summit without blan
kets and very little food, carrying on
their backa sections of the monument
to be planted on the top of the moun
tain. The trail waa very narrow, on
one aide waa the mountain, and on the
other a eloping precipice of about a
thouaand feet. ' t-
About half way up the mountain the
trail led Into what aemed to be a solid
wall of rock about SO feet high which
had to be acaled by means of ropes.
Mr. Rlggs, a member of the party, was
one of the last men on the trail, and.
thinking he saw a better route, reached
for a ledge on the mountain side a
trifle higher than his head. Just aa he
was about to place hla feet on the
ledge above the rock came looae, and,
to keep himself from falling, he In
atinctlvely threw the rock over hla
head. The act of throwing the rock
caused him to loose his balance, and
hj turned a complete somersault and
landed on hla neck about 2S feet
farther down the mountain. Here he
braced himself in a sitting position, but
kept on sliding down the precipice SO
feet or so until he finally stopped him
self In a sitting position with his feet
hanging over a precipice ' having a
sheer drop of about SO0 feet. After
picking himself up he found the dam
ages to be a broken rib and sprained
wrist. This did not stop him from com
pleting the work he started out to do,
so he immediately resumed the climb
for the summit, completed ' the work
and returned to camp.
While the line-cutting was being;
carried on, the topographers were also
doing their work, which consisted of
making maps of the physical features
of the surrounding country, on which
were shown the streams, trails, roads,
houses, mountain peaks and. In fact,
everything In relation to the boundary
line.
Maay Hardships Endured.
"In the execution of this work the
men frequently endured great hard
ship." Mr. Sinclair told the writer. "I
remember distinctly the difficulty we
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had In reaching some of the trlangula
tlon stations, when trips had to be
made of two and three days where the
climbing was so difficult everything
possible had to be dispensed with and
the men could not even carry blankets.
This, It will be remembered, was done
above the snow line. It was danger
ous climbing; too, whore a single mis
step meant being dashed to pieces on
the rocks 1000 feet below. They could
carry only a limited amount of food,
and food, together with the Instru
ments made a pack as heavy as a man
could carry. It waa exceedingly chll-
ly work trying to aleep with no blank
ets and frequently no fire, ab a height
of from 7000 to 8000 feet."
Many amusing incidents were told
of the men while crossing streams on
slippery poles or old trees, which had
been felled to make a bridge. The
least experienced tightrope-walkers of
the party were often compelled to take
an Involuntary cold bath in the Icy
waters of mountain streams, and the
rescuing of these men was no simple
undertaking.
After the line had been located and
the vista cut. aluminum bronze mon
uments, five feet above the ground and
three feet below, set in concrete foun
dations, were erected. The total weight
of these monuments was about 250
pounds and because of their weight
they had been made in sections in the
factory. They were usually trans
ported on the backs of mules, but
many times the men themselves had
to pack them on their own backs and
then be dragged up the sides of cliffs
by means of a rope, one man going
up first hand over hand and when he
reached tne top he would drop a rope
and pull up the man with the load.
In this connection a good story is
told of one of the men who was too
laay to climb the last cliff and pre
vailed upon his. comrades to pull him
up by the .rope. In the act of adjust
ing the rope around his body, it
slipped and caught him around the
legs and he was pulled up feet fore
most for a distance of more than 100
feet, 'and finally landed on top of the
cliff. This man never again asked his
comrades to pull him up the side of a
cliff, but did all -hla climbing alone.
"Many accidents happened through
the careless use of the ax in chopping
down trees," said Mr. Barnard. "Fre
quently a man would come limping
Into camp with a toe severed or a great
gash in his foot, and ha had. to ba doc-
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Before
tored and sent back to the base of
supplies. One rather amusing Incident
of this kind came under my observa
tion. One day one of the men re
turned to camp with his foot swollen
to an enormous size. To make this
story a little clearer I will have to go
back a little. Prior to this time the
camp had been placed where there was
considerable poison ivy, and many of
the men suffered from coming in con
tact with this poisonous weed. It
seems that this man shortly after the
accident, must have come in contact
with some of this poison ivy, and when
he was brought to camp, there were
blisters on his foot the size of a man's
hat. I was really alarmed and in
sisted he should be sent to the nearest
hospital. But a local doctor diagnosed
the case as caused by poison Ivy. He
took charge of the man and within a
week had him at work again."
After the line had been located and
all monuments set along the section
west of the Rocky Mountains, one of
the English representatives, Mr. Ogll
vie and Mr. Sinclair, of the American
party, went over the line to inspect
and attach the proper number to each
monument; the monuments being num
bered consecutively from Point Rob
erts, the western point, to the east.
Thomas Rlggs, one of the engineers
of the party, tells a good story of a
terrific wind storm. He said: "One
morninp while we were in camp, a
frightful storm came up, and gigantic
trees were", being blown In all direc
tions. This made it exceedingly dan
gerous work for all of us that day.
Tree Canses""Panlc.
"The trees continued to fall during
the night until finally one great giant
of a tree fell right on the camp. It
certainly must have been a miracle, as
the Immense trunk struck only one
tent, the branches of the tree extend
ing out over the other tents. In the
tent struck by the tree trunk, the
cook was sitting by the door, end the
trunk missed him by a foot or two.
He Jumped up in great fright, upset
the gasoline tank, which took fire from
his candle, and the whole tent went up
in a flash. We could see the cook run
ning through the woods like a madman,
yelling as though a thousand fiends
were after him. It happened. In his
madness, he took the proper way to get
clear of the mass. If he had run
through the front part of the tent, he
would surely have been killed, but
Instead he rushed to the back part,
went clear through the tent cover, and
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landed In a ravine about 30 feet deep.
We fished him out and in a day or bo
he was all right."
"I remember one particularly nerve
wracking incident which happened to
one of our mules loaded with dyna
mite," said J. H.vTan Wagenen, another
member of the party. "This mule fell
over backwards on a narrow trail and
landed right in front of a party of
men coming up the trail. The men
saw the mulo coming with the packages
marked dynamite, and in their hurry
to get to a safe distance, fell over each
other and made one tangled mass.
When they finally released themselves,
they got up and looking around found
the mule contentedly chewing grass,
with the dynamite still on his back."
"A funny Incident happened while
we were up in one of the most inac
cessible parts of the Kocky Mountains."
here interposed Mr. Barnard. "We had
a crazy Chinaman as cook this time.
Shortly after we hired the Chinaman
he was noticed acting peculiar, and one
of the men said to me: "You had
better go up and have a talk with the
Chinaman, It looks to me as though he
is bugs." I went to the cook's tent,
and found the Chinaman sitting on a
hot stove. When I entered the tent
he drew his finger across his windpipe
and pointed behind him, as though he
expected somebody was going to cut
his throat. I promptly snatched him
off the stove and then tried to find out
what was the matter. He said some
body was trying to kill him. I prompt
ly got rid of Mr. Chinaman the next
day and hired a new cook. There was
much apprehension among the men for
several days following this incident, as
they figured it we were lucky he had
not poisoned the whole camp.
"Several days after this our head
packer went out to hunt for a trail in
a very bad part of the Rockies. He
did not return that night and the next
morning a searching party was about
to go after him, when he was seen
dragging himself into camp, barely
able to crawl. He said in crossing a
steep, rocky mountain slide, covered
with snow, he had slipped and fell a
distance of over 200 feet, rolling over
and over. When about ten feet from
the edge of a precipice he managed to
grab a small tree in his path. This
stopped his fall, but due to the terrific
speed at which he was falling, the act
of catching hold of the tree severely
wrenched the muscles .of his shoulders
and back. He was not able to travel
for several days. As showing the
great nerve of this man, in less than a
week the same man led the pack train
back across the same dangerous slide
as this was the only feasible route
through the mountains."
The work from the Pacific to the
Rocky Mountains was completed in
1907. The examination was completed
In 1908, and the survey of the line
from the summit of the Rocky Moun
tains to the Lake of the Woods waa
started in 1909, and is now completed
up to the Red River, the boundary
line between North Dakota and Minne
sota. From here east the line will
cross a country filled with great
swamps, and where great difficulty
will be experienced in setting monu
ments on the line. One of the swamps
is 45 miles long. As there is only a
distance of 90 miles to complete, the
engineers confidently expect to finish
the work this Summer.
(Copyright 1912 by W. L. Altdorfer.)