BAKER COUNTY HISTORY
TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2020
MAP
80.00 Set Stone … for
corner to secs 28 29 32 & 33
on top of hill. (The crew is on
top of the hill east of Highway
7 at the north end of Bowen
Valley. +600 in margin of the
fi eld note indicates the height
of the hill.)
Land Steep and Stony.
Good Bunch Grass.
Continued from Page 3A
After fi eld notes for all 36
sections were written, the
surveyors, who have made
contact with some of the
occupants of the township,
learned that the number of
settlers in the township was
about 20.
In the following sections
all text is quoted from the
fi eld notes without the use of
quotation marks. I use three
periods … (ellipsis) when text
is omitted or is unreadable.
All text in ( ) parentheses are
my comments. Occasionally
I add punctuation for clarity.
The fi rst fi eld note begins at
the south boundary of the
township.
North between Secs 32 &
33 Ascend hill (On May 16,
1864, the crew is at the south
boundary of the Baker City
Township starting to survey
north from the bottom of
the township. This section
line runs right through the
BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A
Locations of current city streets.
middle of future Baker City.
line.)
Front Street, now known as
40.00 Set Stone…for ¼ Sec
Main Street, is on this section corner.
North between Secs 28 &
29
Descend hill
35.00 Foot of hill. Powder
River 70 lks wide runs North
10° E. -500. (2,310 feet from
beginning of the section line.
Powder River is 46.2 feet
wide running a little east of
due north.)
40.00 (2,640 feet) Set Stone
for ¼ Sec corner. (This is at
the half-mile mark.)
40.40 (2,666.4 feet) Auburn
Road bears NE & SW. (The
crew crosses Auburn Road,
which is headed southwest
toward Auburn, the county
seat.)
50.75 (3,349.5 feet) Auburn
Road bears NW & SE. (The
crew again crosses Auburn
Road.)
80.00 (5,280 feet = 1 mile)
Set post for corner to secs 20,
21, 28 & 29….
Land hilly on 1st half mile
and North ½ Mile Level.
Soil 1st rate (The soil is
rated 1st, 2nd, or 3rd rate for
agricultural purposes. The
crew is now slightly north of
what would be the intersec-
tion of Colorado Street and
David Eccles Road in South
Baker.)
East on a random line
between Sec. 21 & 28 (The
crew is surveying from the
intersection of Colorado and
Eccles streets one mile east,
which is a little east of I-84.)
40.00 Set temporary ¼ Sec
corner.
80.20 Intersect N & S Line
at corner to secs. 21, 22, 27 &
28 from which corner I run
West on a true Line between
Secs 21 & 28. Descend hill.
(A notation indicated that
the elevation drop is 200 feet.
The crew is now headed back
along the same section line.)
39.90 (2633 feet) Road
bears NW & SE. (This is
the road from Baker City to
Durkee. It is not labeled on
the map.)
41.50 (2739 feet) Brook 6
lks wide runs NW. (Sutton
Creek is 3.96 feet wide. From
here Sutton Creek is headed
to its confl uence with Powder
River about three-quarters of
a mile to the northwest.)
70.50 (4653 feet) Powder
River 70 lks wide runs N.
(Powder River is 46.53 feet
wide and running north.)
80.20 The corner to secs 20,
21, 28 & 29. Land hilly. Soil
2nd rate.
In Part 2 of this series (in
the Thursday, April 23, issue),
we’ll join the Thompson and
Chaplin crew as they survey
right up the middle of an area
of some sagebrush and dusty
roads that became Baker
City.
Land survey system dates to act of Congress in 1785
By Gary Dielman
In Oregon and Washington, land
ownership is described in terms of
where a given piece of land is located
within a “Township.”
The township is the basic unit of
a system that goes back well over
two centuries, when the Continental
Congress passed the “Land Ordi-
nance of 1785.” The ordinance cre-
ated the Public Land Survey System
(PLSS) for the purpose of describing
precisely where land is located.
PLSS is still used today, but now it
is administered by the U.S. Bureau
of Land Management (BLM). An
excellent history about describing
the location of land in the U.S. may
be read and/or downloaded at the
BLM website below. It may be more
than you ever wanted to know, but I
think it makes fascinating reading.
https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/
fi les/histrect.pdf
The basic PLSS units are six-mile-
square “townships.” Each township
is divided into 36 sections, each cov-
ering one square-mile. The Govern-
ment Land Offi ce contracted with
surveyors to survey every one of the
36 sections of a township. A proper-
ty’s legal description was, and still is,
in relation to where the property is
located within a given township. In
1864 the Oregon Surveyor General’s
The land survey system is based on the township — an area divided
into 36 sections, each covering one square-mile. The chart above
shows the numbering system for sections in each township.
Submitted photo
This marker in west Portland was the starting point for land surveys
in Oregon and Washington.
offi ce was in Eugene City, Oregon,
with a satellite offi ce in La Grande.
In Oregon and Washington, the
starting point of the PLSS system
is in west Portland, where the
Willamette Meridian (WM) and a
Baseline were established in 1851.
The WM runs north/south
from the Canadian border to the
California border. The line runs, for
example, 13 miles east of Salem
and 17 miles east of Eugene. The
east-west Baseline (45° 31’ 11”) runs
from the Oregon Coast to the Idaho
state line.
In Portland, Stark Street, for
example, runs down the Baseline. In
Eastern Oregon the Baseline runs,
for example, east and west three
miles south of Elgin. All township
locations in Oregon and Washington
are in reference to how far they are
from the Willamette Meridian and
the Baseline.
Baker City is located in Township
9 South, Range 40 East, abbreviated
T9S R40E WM. In other words, it is
the 40th township east of the Wil-
lamette Meridian and the 9th town-
ship south of the Baseline. Since
townships are six-miles square, the
Baker City township is 240 miles
east of the WM and 54 miles south
of the Baseline.
Story Miller’s coronavirus chronicle
Editor’s Note: This is the fourth
installment of the diary that Story
Miller, who grew up in Richland,
wrote from her home in Italy, where
she has lived since 2012. The fi rst
installment was in the Herald’s April
9 issue, the second was published
April 11 and the third on April 18.
All are available at www.bakercity-
herald.com
Despite being here for eight years,
there is still a cultural gap, both in
language and working styles and
my strong American personality
and upbringing, where women did
what Italians would consider “men’s
work,” doesn’t mesh well with an old-
school Italian mentality. Nope, it’s
best that I continue with my garden,
get through the loads of things I’ve
neglected in the house, and intro-
duce new things about the world
with my daughter, Lamia. For her,
there’s beauty in being just under
3 in this moment. Mommy is home
all the time now. Everybody is at my
disposal, ice pops are plentiful, and I
can play outside all the time.
As a family, we have also had
moments of healing. My daughter
learned how to make pasta with her
Italian Nonna (grandmother). Mu-
sic has been a very important factor
in both my husband’s and my lives
and we now have time to share that
with our daughter as she strums
the guitar with Daddy while I either
play the harmonica or trumpet. Yes-
terday we washed my car by hand
and memories fl ooded my mind with
how I used to do this with my father
and brother on hot summer days,
the joy of a sudden water fi ght, and
the satisfaction of a job well done.
Could it be that COVID-19 could
actually help reawaken the innate
human need to create and express
oneself through art, and music?
Could it reawaken skills and activi-
ties that have been at the brink of
extinction in the wake of this digital
era?
Because I’m a teacher, many
families have asked me what to do
about their child’s education. I see
many schools and teachers panick-
ing about reaching the bar, main-
taining reading levels, keeping up
with mathematics, etc. I, too, feel the
anxiety of making sure my students
reach their grade-level objectives but
I have also noticed that creativity
and practical skills have diminished
as more and more kids channel that
creativity into digital devices, mostly
due to the grueling work schedule
and extracurricular activity pace
that most families face. What can
one do, now that organized sport
practice has been canceled? I have
to smile because most ranching
families simply continue working
and the kids work right alongside
them. In town and in the cities, the
scenario is different, especially with
both parents having essential jobs
and schools can no longer be taken
for granted as free “child care” for
8 hours a day. As a community, we
cannot be blind to this fact and so
even through social distancing, if
help can be provided, these are the
families that need everyone’s help.
Regarding activities and practi-
cal skills that foster common sense,
never has it been a better time. In
the past 10 years, I can say that
I’ve been repeatedly shocked that
most middle school kids cannot use
sewing thread to tie knots to squares
of plastic garbage bags to make
parachutes (this has been in the
USA and Italy) to study the physics
concept of air resistance as a force.
As I’ve observed the shift in school
curriculums worldwide, it is shock-
ing to me that most “laboratory”
experiences are now based on the
aforementioned activities because
many children do not have the op-
portunities to engage in these activi-
ties with their families, largely due
to the pace of organized activities
and “keeping up with the Joneses.”
Now is the time to reinforce prac-
tical mathematical and scientifi c
concepts with your child in measure-
ment, proportions, geometry and
arithmetic while cooking, woodwork-
ing, building a tree house, quilting,
building a kite, making parachutes,
constructing little sailboats, sewing
clothes for dolls or oneself, washing
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and waxing a car, taking apart an
engine or changing the oil, refur-
bishing old furniture, etc. I recently
introduced a friend to the art of sour-
dough cooking and we had a long
discussion about anaerobic respira-
tion, pH neutralization, straining off
the hooch and realizing the word’s
connection to alcohol. Even under-
standing the chemistry behind why
vinegar is used in coloring Easter
eggs, or something as simple as
observing the bees, growing a small
vegetable garden, knitting, looking
for arrowheads, fi shing, tying fl ies,
making a basket, painting, reading
a new book, truly feeds the essen-
tial skill of turning boredom into
productive hobbies that can last a
lifetime.
This skill of turning boredom into
productive, self-fulfi lling activities,
I feel is at the root of many psycho-
logical conditions First World societ-
ies have been plagued with and
why schools have seen substantial
results in “10-minute meditation”
or the push for complex “coloring
books” and “safe spaces.” The time
to do calming, methodical activities
has become nonexistent in many
households. Now is the time to
bring these skills back into the lives
of our children and I truly wonder if
we take the time to make lemonade
from the COVID-19 lemons, that
our kids will come back into the
schools in September with greater
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skills and ideas simply because
time has been provided to create
and explore the world (while of
course, in the safety of our homes).
Having said that, I am off to
color Easter eggs with my daugh-
ter. Perhaps we’ll talk about how
mixing primary colors can make
new, secondary colors. Then I’m off
to help my mother-in-law prepare
our Easter specialty, baked rabbit
(shhhh ... don’t tell the kids that
we actually eat the Easter Bunny
here)!
I shall now close this part of my
thoughts. I’m incredibly grateful for
the warm welcome and questions
coming in from Pine and Eagle val-
leys. I encourage you to stay alert
and please don’t be distracted by
the media. Open your eyes to what
has happened in other countries
and know that we are just as frus-
trated as the American people have
started and will continue to be.
None of this is truly ideal. None of
this is fair. Nobody asked for a pan-
demic and our businesses and fam-
ily livelihoods are taking grave hits
as a consequence. I ask you to stay
strong and continue the hope that
we have been building during these
dark times. Perhaps the children of
Pine and Eagle valleys can build on
what the Italian children have cre-
ated by hanging signs of hope Andrà
Tutto Bene (It will all be OK). Buona
Pasqua (Happy Easter)
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