Survey project to aid military with planning
for the future required a trip to the past
by Kay Kruse-Stanton
T
he survey to determine the borders of the Wyoming
Military Department’s Camp Guernsey Northern
Training Area was bound to be challenging:
approximately 65 miles of boundary in often rugged
southeastern Wyoming terrain, harsh weather, and
deteriorated or missing survey markers. Finding out that
some of the late 1800s survey records were misleading
was yet another complication.
The key to the project’s success, said Lil Clabots,
senior master planner for the Wyoming Army National
Guard, was the quality of the communication between the
Construction and Facilities Management Office (CFMO)
and Ayres Associates, the firm retained to complete the work.
“It was one of the smoothest projects I’ve worked on
because of the consistency in communication,” she said.
As a result of the six-month project, the Department
received updated maps that will guide future land use
decisions, said Lt. Col. Guy Beaudoin, director of the CFMO.
“Our primary reason for the survey was to confirm our
boundaries,” he said. “We knew some of the initial surveys
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had some issues. We found out that there were some shifts
in property lines. You don’t want to second-guess those
boundaries; we had to have reliable information.”
The Camp’s 55,000-acre North Training Area is a
valuable training ground for the Wyoming Army and
Air National Guard units, as well as other military units.
Property acquisitions over the last eight years expanded
the Camp’s total holdings to about 80,000 acres. Between
the Camp’s northern and southern training areas is a
network of public highways, a community, and a park.
Linda Clark, senior lands management specialist with
the CFMO, said checks of county land records revealed
discrepancies.
From the beginning, Clabots served as the main point
of contact for the CFMO, and Ayres Associates project
manager Evelyn Ferneding held the same role for the
surveyors.
“Evelyn and I had a very good working relationship in
that she knew that there was one point of contact. That’s
what kept the project on track,” Clabots said.