Steve Bye in the field with his Leica robotic surveying instrument.
Story and photos by Stewart A. McFerran
A surveyor’s workplace is your yard, your property and your neighbor’s yard. Surveyors are sleuths. They investigate every corner of your property and the surrounding land for markers. Sometimes those markers are steel rods, sometimes they are concrete monuments. And sometimes property has been marked with wooden stakes that rotted away years ago.
The bright flags at the top of those survey markers define the edges of the property and the boundaries with neighbors. They are the hard lines that at times limit the dreams of aspiring builders. Other times, they expand dreams.
The work of dropping abstract points and lines onto the land is the subject of scrutiny by buyers, sellers and banks. Pounding stakes into the ground ⸺ where the earth may be soft sand or unforgiving rock or gravel ⸺ surveyors must stand behind their work.
They use instruments to sight from point to point and create lines. There must be a line of sight between those points. The machete is a tool of choice and used to cut greenery that obstructs the view. New “robotic” surveying equipment has replaced 200-foot tape that used to measure distance. A two-person crew is no longer necessary.
My friend Steve Bye is a professional surveyor who often works alone. He has made his mark, leaving stakes in the ground at precise points all over northwest lower Michigan. These markers assist those moving forward with building projects.
One time, Steve was assisting with a new road project in Elberta. The road curved up and over a hill to a parking lot overlooking Lake Michigan. A name was needed for the new road; Steve suggested Bye Road. The name stuck, and a fine road it is.
He also suggested I speak with Christine “Christy” Andersen who, like Steve, has a degree in surveying from Ferris State University.
I asked her what she loves about surveying, and she replied: “I love everything about it. The original appeal was that it was an outdoor job. I like the math; I like solving the puzzles. Every job has a challenge. You have to figure things out, and if you come across someone else’s work and it doesn’t quite match yours, you have to figure out what they did.
“And every job is different, it’s always a daily surprise. Most surveyors I know just really enjoy it and we do it forever.”
Christy told me she was the first female to work outside the office while employed by the Benzie County Road Commission.
“They didn’t know what to do with me, so they put me on their survey crew,” she said.
She worked with a staff engineer and his helper, laying out roads.
“When I first started, they had just come out with EDMs (Electronic Distance Measurement equipment) … The new equipment makes it possible for surveyors to work alone. I don’t like being out in the woods by myself near the roads. There are too many hazards. Being female, I was a little more in tune with that.”
Christy worked with many all-male crews.
“I wasn’t always accepted,” she shared. “It was definitely a man’s field when I started in 1974.”
She worked in Beulah for Harold Bruning, who owned a surveying company in Benzie County.
“And it’s thanks to him that I got a chance,” she said. “There weren’t many surveying companies that would have hired me.”
Bruning was the Benzie County surveyor for many years.
“He hired another woman, and she was my rod person,” Christy explained. “We always said we were the first and only female crew in the state.”
Christy said the jobs can change by the day.
“You get to see the worst of people’s property … You’re in their backyards. You find all the dumps in the woods. In the spring when the snow melts and before the leaves come on, and (in) fall after the leaves drop, (these) are absolutely the best times because you can see everything. You have to be able to have a line of sight to do your work.
“Yes, I do have a machete, and I got pretty good with it.”
Christy wants to encourage young females who might consider surveying as a career. She wants them to know that “they can do it.” She is now retired and lives in the Interlochen area, where she keeps horses and only occasionally takes on surveying projects.
Stewart A. McFerran illuminates current environmental issues in a historic context. He hopes readers will gain an understanding and insight into ways people interact with their environment.
