History of the Boundary of LA County

[Steve Martin]

Just one of those treasures you find when you buy a box of miscellaneous book at the conference auction...




Revised June 15, 1965 by Ira Alexander and Capt William Malnate

Intro attached

[proud]

Steve, You attached the wrong attachment. Funny thing is I was just thinking about the attached job description and pay the other day. At the time that was the most pay I had seen for a public agency land surveyor. 170K$. I'm interested in seeing the intro to LA's boundary history. Probably done now by a gis layer from the assessor's map??? Jp

[DWoolley]

Also, do not apply for the position posted. The flyer is dated 2018 and the vacancy has been filled.

Also, the name Ira Alexander is legendary in the LA basin. Mr. Alexander was still around early in my career and I met him on a couple of occasions. I was to young and inexperienced to realize and appreciate his knowledge. He wrote Special Publication 252 which were the zone constants for NAD 27. He also wrote the introduction to "Writing Legal Descriptions" by Wattles. When I started working, state plane coordinates were hand calculated - we didn't have computers - using Special Publication 252 to interpolate the scale and elevation factors.

Back in those days, dating back to the mid-50s, ACSM was the guiding professional light for land surveying. Ira Alexander and the folks from the City and County of Los Angeles were the main western states contributors. A powerhouse of land surveying knowledge.

In a world of RTN-GPS coordinate collectors it is hard for me to imagine a place for someone like Ira Alexander in the land surveying profession today.

Read this bio: http://www.mdshs.org/IRA_ALEXANDER_memory.htm

Hat tip to the historical society.

Reading the biography, imagine a land surveyor that had graduate degrees from Berkeley, fought in Italy during WW2 i.e. think months long campaign in Monte Cassino, worked surveying on the Alcan Highway - some of the most rugged terrain in North America in intemperate weather - and having the knowledge to write the national geodetic standards having to supervise a modern crew that finds setting up an instrument as an inconvenience or unable to read a level rod or not being willing to keep field notes. Better yet, attempting to negotiate an outsized salary with no minimal technical knowledge or credentials (LSIT).

Ira died 20 years ago January. It was a blessing he didn't live to see this day professionally.

DWoolley

[mpallamary]

Ira was a great guy and a wonderful inspiration.

Dave. I couldn't agree more!

[Steve Martin]

Oops.

Document deleted. LB was right next to LA

[Steve Martin]

JP,

The pdf of the first few pages of the original typewritten document would not load.

It looks like it was originally compiled under the direction of County Surveyor Alfred Jones in May of 1938.

Lots of research and document references.

Steve

[CBarrett]

I wish I had a chance to see Ira speak more than once!

[Steve Martin]

Attached are diagrams from the back of the report. These appear to show LA County's 1851 boundary. The boundary per the statutes of 1850 are dashed in. In the original 27 Counties per the 1850 statutes, San Diego County bordered LA County on the east.

I posted a little about the evolution of San Diego County on LinkedIn two years ago.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/steven-m ... esktop_web

This bound report was probably part of Dick Mitchell's library which was donated to the CLSA Education Foundation after his passing. I got it for next to nothing on a box of old books.