Other areas that required extra care were those that seemed to have historic value . From 1849 to 1869 , thousands of people traveled the Oregon and Mormon Trails through this region . Camp Guernsey has received praise for its comprehensive survey of cultural resources . Approximately 1,000 sites have been documented related to early settlement on the land , emigrant travels , and Native American Indian tribe activities .
The crew found many of the original corners , said Fletcher Koos , the project surveyor . But as they worked on the northern boundaries of the property , they saw increasingly large variations between where modern GPS technology said the corners should be and where early surveyors had placed them .
“ Over a 3-mile span , the markers could be 600 feet from where they should be ,” Warden said . “ It was taking us six weeks to redo the earliest survey – and those surveyors completed the area in question in three days . That ’ s when I started to speculate that the earlier survey was fraudulent . The surveyors were getting paid by the mile , and that ’ s rough country .”
Wade Johnson , a master planner for the CFMO ,
participated in some of the surveys of the Camp several years ago and was not surprised that the crew found discrepancies . “ We knew there were going to be challenges ,” he said . “ The original Bureau surveys were not accurate .”
As crew members looked into the history of the surveys , they became increasingly convinced that the early work was misleading – at best .
“ A couple of the townships were surveyed by members of the Benson Syndicate , an organized crime operation that defrauded the government of millions of dollars in poorly executed or not executed surveys in 10 Western states ,” Koos said . “ We suspected that some of the lines were not run when the notes were in total disagreement with the area we were surveying . One example was a couple of miles that crossed the river a couple of times . The river is in a very steep canyon , and it would be very dangerous for a crew to climb down the cliff . In the notes they called the land as level . Other examples put the river location a quarter-mile off .”
Clabots said she received nearly daily communication from Ferneding throughout the project , so the news of the
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