By Bill Wilson
In a previous issue of this newsletter (winter, 2004), I described the "astronomic monument" (as it is labeled on the USGS Georgetown topographic quadrangle) that a survey party installed in Georgetown in June, 1873. The field party, headed by Dr. F. Kampf, was part of the Wheeler Survey, the ambitious project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to map the entire region of the U.S. west of the 100th meridian. The sandstone monument stands about 3.5 feet high and is 2.0 x 1.5 feet in cross section. The party used it as a platform to mount instruments to make astronomical observations. The objective was to make accurate determinations of the latitude and longitude of the site. Kampf and his team installed four other monuments in Colorado that summer and one additional one in the state the next summer.
I concluded the previous article with several questions about the monuments, and I indicated that I intended to pursue answers and would provide an update. I now have at least partial answers to four questions: Who was Dr. F. Kampf? Do the other Colorado monuments still exist? Where was the quarry that was the source of the monuments?
And how can we best protect the Georgetown monument from further weathering?
Kampf. Dr. Kampf was a mystery man. He worked on the Wheeler Survey for several years, and he authored reports on the results of his astronomical observations. His name appears in various project documents, including, for example, letters, field notes, and lists of personnel. But the name is always the same: "Dr. F. Kampf" - no first name, no personal information about his background, nothing about where he came from, etc. After a long and convoluted research effort, I have learned that he was Dr. Carl Ludwig Ferdinand Kampf, born in Altenburg, Germany, on May 23, 1842. He received his doctorate in astronomy in 1868 from the University of Göttingen while he was employed at the Hamburg Observatory. However, the circumstances of his coming to America and starting to work for the Wheeler Survey, probably in the early 1870s, are unknown. He died in 1878, as a result of a blow on the forehead while on field duty. Details of the accident are still to be learned. Thus, much about Dr. Kampf remains a mystery.
Monuments. After completing his tasks in Georgetown, Kampf and
his team repeated the effort in Hughes (now Brighton), Colorado Springs,
Labran (now Florence), and Trinidad. The following summer they did the
same in Julesburg, as well as at sites in other states. Using the descriptions
and sketch maps in Kampf's reports and his computed values of latitude
and longitude of the monument sites, I have attempted to locate each of
the Colorado monuments. Besides the one in Georgetown, I could find only
two others, in Trinidad and Julesburg. The other three sites are in urban
areas or other highly disturbed settings, where the monuments have apparently
been removed or destroyed. The one in Trinidad is highly weathered, such
that it is misshapen and the inscriptions are illegible; the one in Julesburg
is less weathered but has a large crack through it. The Georgetown monument
is the best preserved but also shows signs of deterioration. It is the
one that I propose to protect, as described below.
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Curiouser and curiouser: Georgetown resident Marcellus Merrill posed with the Wheeler monument in 1973. Ever-observant of his surroundings, Merrill noted on the back of the print that this scene took place 100 years after the monument was installed. The photo was taken by Gene Lindberg of the Denver Post and furnished to HGI by Constance Primus. |
Quarry. During the summer of 1873, a rumor circulated that the Georgetown monument was made of granite or sandstone that had been shipped from Maine. Thus its lithology and origin became the subject of some tongue-in-cheek commentary in the press, to which Lt. Wheeler himself indignantly replied. He wrote that the Georgetown monument had been "fabricated in Labran, Col." and shipped by rail and wagon to Georgetown. He claimed that the other four monuments installed that summer in Colorado "were obtained from the same quarry."
In 1873 Labran was simply a railroad stop, just east of what was to become the heart of Florence. Extensive buff-colored sandstone units underlie the region, and some of these are similar in texture and color to the sandstone of the monuments.
I visited the area twice to search for both the source quarry and the Labran monument. A large abandoned quarry that I examined was reportedly a source of building stone for some of the fine homes in Florence, but it was not yet in operation in 1873. In fact, there are no known references to major building-stone quarries anywhere in Colorado before 1875. Numerous small abandoned stone quarries exist in the area, and so the 1873 source of Wheeler's monuments was probably one of these. Even if a perfect match could be made between the stone from a particular quarry and that of a monument, it would be difficult to state unequivocally that the correct quarry had been found. Thus, that search, like the quarries themselves, was abandoned.
Protection. The deterioration of the Georgetown monument is probably mostly due to moisture that enters the pores and is subject to freeze-thaw cycles. Some of the engraved lettering is becoming difficult to read. In fact, in my previous article I noted that one of the inscriptions on the monument seemed to read, in part, "[71?] LOCATIONS WEST OF THE 100TH MERIDIAN." I have since learned from one of Wheeler's reports and by examining the monument at Julesburg, that it actually reads, logically enough, "EXPLORATIONS WEST OF THE 100TH MERIDIAN."
After consulting with some experts in building-stone protection, I have concluded that the best and simplest approach is to construct a shelter to keep moisture off the top of the monument. Gary Long and I have designed a handsome steel structure that is open at the sides and has a sloping roof. We are presently exploring various options for raising the estimated $3,000 that we need to manufacture and install the monument shelter.
Historical research often leads to incomplete answers and still more
questions. Such is the case with the Wheeler monuments, starting with
the one in Georgetown. And so the search continues, perhaps eventually
leading to Part III of the story!
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| Preserving the Monument: Gary Long of Long Hoeft Architects has designed a simple shelter that will protect the curious artifact. |