BEDFORD – This month’s Bedford Park Program will begin at 6 p.m. on March 28 and features a program on what early surveyors saw when they first traversed the Indiana territories by A.J. Ariens, an Archaeologist from Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
Ariens has studied the early notes of surveyors who crisscrossed southern Indiana as they laid out the township, range, and sections so that the land could be settled.
Ariens reports on the kind of notes the surveyors from the early 1800s made as they transected straight courses through this area previously settled only by Native Americans. They made annotations as they went about the trails they crossed and the trees they used as witness trees for the corner monuments. These records give an interesting window into what these surveyors saw and what trees and terrain they crossed in various parts of southern Indiana.
According to Teena Ligman, this is a fun program that may change some previously held perceptions of how the early Indiana forest looked presettlement.
The presentation will be held at the historic Otis Park Bath House located between the Red Brick Mansion and the golf course office at 607 Tunnelton Road, east of Bedford.
Please RSVP to the Park office at 812-275-5692 or email jwebb@bedford.in.us so officials have enough handouts and chairs ready.
Mark your calendars for the April program on April 25, which is “Magnificent Trees of Indiana” presented by Carroll Ritter.
