Hot Springs Greater Learning Foundation

Thermopolis, Wyoming

"FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA: CHARTING AMERICA"

A plain red pole stands on top of Roundtop Mountain above Thermopolis. "It marks an important triangulation point used to survey this entire region," explained Rick Hudson, county surveyor.

That marker represents an age-old technology that allowed men to chart the coasts and the continent, to create roads and railroads.

"Now, computers and Geographic Information Systems have completely changed the way we are able to measure land and water," Hudson said.

How America charted the waters and the land is the subject of "From Sea to Shining Sea: 200 Years of Charting America," at the Old West Wax Museum, Thermopolis.

The poster exhibit is co-sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Smithsonian Institution, in conjunction with Hot Springs Greater Learning Foundation. The exhibit was prepared to celebrate 200 years of service.

Also on exhibit are materials from Hot Springs County Surveyors Association and from the U.S. Weather Service. Artifacts include a 1960s theodolite surveying instrument, a standard surveyor marker and a weather balloon.

In 1807, after Lewis & Clark had returned from exploring the West, President Thomas Jefferson pushed Congress to pass an act to chart the nation's ports and waterways. The Survey of the Coast would become today's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In the past two centuries, the Survey has mapped more than 95,000 miles of coastline, produced more than 20,000 nautical maps and charts, helped predict tidal movements and oil spills, and maintained a national network of more than 1,000 reference sites for marine and land navigation and location-based services.

The exhibit includes the early history of surveying to today's weather and climate-related efforts, including Hurricane Katrina cleanup, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System, and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) network of 60 countries and the European Commission.