Web exclusive. Rural Appalachian surveyors faced many challenges, some of which are humorous.

When speaking of chronological age, the southern Appalachian mountains, with ridges softened by the passing of time, are proverbial grandfathers to the Rockies. And like a wise grandfather, these mountains hold a nurturing personality and lonesome mystique all their own, sometimes providing a tough lesson in resourceful living and sometimes making us laugh with funny stories. The early settlers of the region became acquainted with this personality and set up homesteads. Likewise, a person making his or her living from the land here today gains a strange familiarity with the flora and topography of the Appalachians.