President's Message

Members,

I had a wonderful time at the Quad-County (Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Indian River) meeting last month. I think there were 115+ people there to celebrate National Surveyors Week, but more importantly, we celebrated our Profession with our friends, colleagues, and peers!

The celebration was held at the Student Union Hall on the Boca Raton Campus of FAU and the Chapters did a wonderful job of setting up and catering, so it turned out to be a huge success.

These events, and there have been multiple around the State this year, take so much planning, organization, and some really tough decisions down to the last minutes before, so the Chapter members really need to take a minute to recognize all of the people involved that made it happen and say thank you to them. We also can’t forget all of the companies that sponsor these events, because without their generous contributions they could not possibly happen.

Our FSMS Legislative committee headed by Mr. Jack Breed has been deeply involved with keeping us informed of the different Senate bills out there that are threatening our profession. Our committee’s success rate is tremendous and has definitely been helped by our friend and Lobbyist David Daniel and his firm Smith, Bryan & Myers. They are quietly fighting behind the scenes, guiding us to which Legislators are our friends so we can support them through our FSMPAC fund and ensure a successful end game. The end of the legislative session is May 1, and it looks very promising that our Legislative Team (Committee & Lobbyist) will be successful again, but we have to wait till then, so stay tuned in and continue to help fight with your donation to FSMPAC.

 On another note, the Annual Conference is July 30th through August 2nd at the Naples Grande Resort, you can plan early and get your hotel reservation now so don’t delay.

Survey History: Some of you know that one of my passions is Surveying history and bringing it forward to now whenever possible. I gave a brief presentation at the Quad-County Meeting on a part of the Coastal Survey done in 1855 by superintendent A.D. Bache, grandson of Benjamin Franklin. I focused on two accurate 4-mile baselines that A.D. Bache established in Florida that year. One at Key Biscayne and one at Cape Sable.

The Key Biscayne baseline, A.D. Bache’s field crews set two stamped and elaborate 16” x 16” x 31” granite monuments on top of a 35” x 40” x 28” deep granite base, North Base and South Base. He also set 12” x 12” x 36” granite monuments at each mile post between. In 1970, a granite monument was accidentally uncovered by a bulldozer in Key Biscayne Golf course. This started an elaborate chain of events. James Frasier, PLS, a Miami Dade county surveyor, spent 2 years researching and created a report of his findings in which he determined it was the North base and part of the A.D. Bache Coastal survey. Using his research and calculations, he searched for the South Base and determined it would be south of the Lighthouse and about 300 feet out in the ocean due to erosion.

In 1978, the Miami Dade chapter of the Florida Society of Professional Land Surveyors (FSPLS) got together and calculated the position of the South Base, triangulated it with two transits on shore and divers went down and found it laid over in 12 feet of water.

It took 10 more years, but a collaboration of FSPLS, FDOT, the Cape Florida State Park and the Airforce Recovery & Rescue personnel and their helicopter, recovered the monument and brought it ashore where it stands today. Both North and South bases have a plaque and are a shining example of our Survey History.

In the early 1990’s two more Dade County surveyors (Ted Riggs & John Liptak) searched for and found all three of the granite mile post monuments.

The Cape Sable baseline, A.D. Bache’s crews set 9 inch stamped disks on top of Screw Pile monuments for the East and West Bases for this baseline. My research found that screw piles were used for lighthouses and beacons back in 1855, and were 9 inches in diameter by 9 feet long cast iron pipes that had a pointed screw type end and were screwed into the ground by a cog placed on top with metal spokes that rotated into the ground or reef by 4-5 men. Based on A.D. Bache’s 1855 report which I found in the Coastal Survey archives, the only granite monument on this baseline was Mile Post 2 in the middle.

In the past 4 years two surveyors have taken it upon themselves to search for the Cape Sable baseline monuments. Mike Bartholomew of Biscayne Engineering (now part of Atwell), hiked and kayaked with his son upon the Cape Sable trail route and found and documented the East Base screw pile monument. He also searched for the mile post 2 monument but did not find it.

Another Surveyor, Brion Yancy of Indian River Chapter, took up the challenge and this year found the Mile Post 2 (aka MidPost) monument which is a 12 inch x 12 inch granite monument with a brass nail in the center of the top roughly within 2 feet of where Mike had searched.

This is an example of two adventurer surveyors of today, testing their muster and research abilities against the salt marshes and the mosquitoes that come with it to find part of our history that still exists out there.

The Coastline Surveys were established in 1807 under the instructions from Thomas Jefferson himself knowing and understanding the need to i dentify and accurately map the coast of the new United States of America. This mandate was carried forward through to 1848-1855 when the official accura te surveys were commenced under Superintendent A.D. Bache, and the rest is history, but these examples are in Florida.

Respectfully submitted,

Richard D. Pryce, RLS/PSM

Previous 2025 Messages
January 2025
February 2025
March 2025