News and Events

Kari Campbell Kari Campbell

Surveying - a career for the ages — and today

Surveying is one of the world’s most enduring professions – since ancient times, it has been key to establishing international boundaries, marking property boundaries, and ensuring that engineering and architectural structures and precisely aligned and properly constructed.

With this long history, it might follow that surveying itself is a dated profession, but the opposite is true. As advancements in astronomy and mathematics were achieved, these advancements were immediately applied to surveying.

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Debra Oakes Debra Oakes

Federal Agencies Get the Job Done

For more than 50 years, Berntsen has worked alongside federal agencies to provide useful and quality products. From monuments that can be set in wetlands to RFID markers that integrate with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), federal agencies rely on Berntsen to deliver quality products that help them fulfill their missions.

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Debra Oakes Debra Oakes

The pros and cons of starting your own surveying business

There’s probably never been a better time to be a surveyor, especially with the many new infrastructure projects in the works. For surveyors who want the freedom to take advantage of the boom, it may be a good time to start a surveying business. For others, it’s a great time to pick up new skills, recognition and pay within their survey/engineering firm.

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Kari Campbell Kari Campbell

Thank you, veteran surveyors!

Surveyors were key to the birth of our country, serving in the Revolutionary War and signing the Declaration of Independence. Since that time, surveyors have continued to serve our country, both in peacetime and in conflict.

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News Kari Campbell News Kari Campbell

April is Safe Digging Month - for good reason.

As surveyors intimately understand, it’s very important to know what’s below. Your life could depend on it. National Safe Digging Month was created in 2008 by the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) to bring visibility to protecting workers, utilities and the public by working to prevent utility strikes during excavation. This group is comprised of companies and individuals in every facet of the underground utility industry, including Berntsen.

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News Debra Oakes News Debra Oakes

B.F. Dorr - Pioneer Surveyor

Surveying is more than a profession, it’s a trove of fascinating history and knowledge – from the Egyptians to the Romans to Thomas Jefferson, surveying has been an integral part of the growth of civilization and economic development.

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News Kari Campbell News Kari Campbell

John Morton - Surveyor and Activist

Today I’m sharing my research about a surveyor who didn’t have the best start in life. John Morton was born in Pennsylvania in 1725 shortly after the death of his father, one of the first Swedish immigrants who settled on the banks of the Delaware river in Pennsylvania in an area called New Sweden.

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News Kari Campbell News Kari Campbell

50 years and still innovating!

2022 marks Berntsen’s 50th anniversary. Thank you, surveyors for your support over the past half-century. Berntsen has been supporting surveyors for longer that I’ve been surveying.

It’s been an interesting road, and I’ve really enjoyed digging into Berntsen’s storied past. I’ve come up with a few gems I’ll share with you throughout 2022. Here’s a quick overview of our history.

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News Kari Campbell News Kari Campbell

Abraham Clark - Man of the People

Did you ever wonder why men wore those white wigs back in colonial times? Turns out those wigs weren’t all white, but they were all about looking classy – as in economic class, that is. Apparently the color of the wig reflected status. Professionals went with gray, tradesmen wore brown, and white wigs were reserved for judges and military officers. Men could also don white wigs for special occasions – they went well with the ruffles around the wrist which were also part of the whole look.

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News Kari Campbell News Kari Campbell

Today is GIS Day!

Most people don’t really think about how geographic information provides the framework for our entire existence. We exist as living organisms in time and space. Our minds may be occupied with far-way thoughts, but our memories are inextricably tied to the place where they were created. As long as we live and breathe, we always have a location. Shakespeare’s Hamlet said “To be or not to be, that is the question.” Surveyors say, “To be is to occupy a position relative to two axes.”

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News Kari Campbell News Kari Campbell

Roger that - as in the Roger that did it all.

Roger Sherman He was descended from the Shermans of Yaxley, in the county of Suffolk, England, who were landed gentry who had helped to frame the British Constitution. Born in 1721, the second of seven children of William and Mehatabel Sherman, Roger became farmer and a cordwainer (a person who makes shoes and other items from leather) like his Puritan father.

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News Kari Campbell News Kari Campbell

History of the Certified Federal Surveyor Program

I’m a real history buff and I will use almost any excuse to dig into the past and learn something new. So guess what? Earlier this month we celebrated Columbus Day, which is increasingly being celebrated as Native American Day, which leads me to a related surveying question – How are Indian Trust Lands surveyed?

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News Kari Campbell News Kari Campbell

Emily's National Park Tour, Part 1

As promised in my National Parks Month blog, I said I’d be posting from my vacation to tour just a few of our national treasures. We finished a great time at Mount Rushmore, and then we visited Zion National Park.

The Oxford Dictionary defines "breathtaking" as: astonishing or awe-inspiring in quality, so as to take one's breath away.

To say Zion National Park is breathtaking is an understatement. Words just cannot describe and pictures just don't do it justice. I’ll try with a few, though – sublime, magnificent, glorious, mind-blowing , splendid, and my favorite – divine!

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News Kari Campbell News Kari Campbell

The Romans - Masters of all they surveyed

Surveyors have been doing their job for millennia, and the ingenuity (and accuracy) of ancient instruments is mind-boggling. My last blog was focused on the surveyors of ancient Egypt, who were responsible for laying out temples, palaces, pyramids, boundaries for the Pharaoh to be able to levy taxes accurately.

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News Debra Oakes News Debra Oakes

Surveyor and Revolutionary - Stephen Hopkins

In the US, everybody knows a little bit about the Declaration of Independence. This document was the formal announcement of the split between the Colonies and the British Crown – ultimately creating the United States of America.

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News Debra Oakes News Debra Oakes

The Navajo Nation Cadastral Survey

As a surveyor, did you ever have the opportunity to be part of a historic project? Jack Savlan, now of Milwaukee, did. He was one of the surveyors on the original Cadastral Survey of the Navajo Nation that began on June 21, 1982 at the corner of the sections 35 and 36, T24N, R14W, New Mexico Principal Meridian. Jack’s going to take over the blog for today and share this incredible experience.

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News Debra Oakes News Debra Oakes

Who taught the self-taught surveyors?

It’s well-known that a number of our presidents were surveyors – Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and even Roosevelt (kind of).

Did you ever wonder how the early surveyors learned how to survey? Many biographies say these men were “self-taught” . . . for Washington and Jefferson, this means they got a copy of “Geodaesia,” the first surveying book created for the New World surveyor.

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News Debra Oakes News Debra Oakes

Drawing the Mason-Dixon Line

In 1632, Maryland (governed by the Calvert family) was granted “that part of the Bay of Delaware which Lieth under the Fortieth Degree of North Latitude”. Unfortunately, the fortieth parallel ran right through the middle of Philadelphia, cutting it off from its only harbor. Pennsylvania (governed by the Penn family), didn’t think this was fair, and the case dragged out in English courts for decades. By 1750, a boundary was agreed upon - on paper.

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News Debra Oakes News Debra Oakes

Benjamin Banneker - Mathematician, Astronomer, Reformer and Surveyor

Looking back at the start of our nation, there are those that stand out for their singular contributions that laid the foundations of democracy. Surveyors, including Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln, literally set the boundaries of our country and its ideals. Other surveyors made significant and lasting contributions, including Benjamin Bannaker.

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