Surveying the 120th Meridian and the Great Divide is the second book of
a two-part series describing the initial Alberta/BC boundary survey
undertaken between 1913-1924. Surveying the 120th Meridian focuses on
the years 1918-1924, when the Alberta crew continued the survey of the
120th meridian while the BC crew split off to continue mapping the Great
(Continental) Divide.
The Alberta/BC boundary survey was a unique Canadian project that
combined talented surveyors, high-tech surveying equipment, rugged crew
members and Canadian wilderness. This is a story of adventure and
danger: the crew climbed mountains and surveyed from the peaks of the
Canadian Rockies; slogged through the muskeg north of the Peace River;
occasionally crossed rivers at high water; and often worked in the rain,
snow or cold.
The boundary survey produced the first detailed maps of the terrain
along the divide and the first pictures of the northern Canadian Rockies
taken from an airplane. But the most important legacy of this project is
the collection of approximately 5,000 photographs developed from
high-quality glass plate negatives. These photographs provide full
panoramas of the Rocky Mountain landscape as it looked over a century
ago. Surveying the 120th Meridian and the Great Divide combines the best
of these photographs, diary entries and government documents to recount
the astonishing journey of the surveyors and their crew members as they
explored Canada's most dramatic landscape.
