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The First Survey Through Hal's Lake Swamp Page 11
Final Preparations. On Monday, September 25, John Carson with two surveyors "sets out in a Perogue up the Tombigbee River", while
Dinsmoor and Wailes in another boat set out through the cut-off,
generally surveying that area and Doctor's Lake.64 It was too late
to retrace their steps through the cut-off to spend the night at
Carson's Ferry, so they spent the night at Mrs. JohnPierce's65
near the Alabama River end of the cut-off; the day was "clear and
pleasant".66They spent September 26 moving their camp from Carson's Ferry at the west end of the cut-off to "William Mimm's field on
Nannahubba Island",67 and spent the 27th determining magnetic
deviation.68On Thursday, September 28th, bad news: John Carson came back and, though he had gone to high ground above the swamp, he had misunderstood the times for building fires, so no observer saw
them. Wailes and Dinsmoor decided that, since Dinsmoor had to go
to St. Stephens to pay the "Chikaw Annuity" [annual payment for
the lands in the purchase], the money for which he had picked up
in New Orleans, Dinsmoor would himself go try to find the ridge
north of the swamp and build the firest, since "we deem the
ascertaining the proper course through the swamp by this means of
so much importance. . ."69Actual Survey Begins: The South Cedar Post. On Friday, September 29, 1809, the actual survey began, when Wailes and his crew found a point about half way between the Tombigbee and Alabama ends of the cut-off. There, on the north bank, they put up a cedar post, marked "US" on the west, "MT" for "Muscogee Territory", on the south side, "SD 1809" [for Silas Dinsmoore and the year] on the east, and on the north side "LW" [for Levin Wailes}, "round which he threw up a mound." This was the starting point, from which they
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64Id. at 163.
65The Pierces operated Pierce's Boatyard in sight of [later]
Ft. Mims, Hamilton at 428, hence "Boatyard Lake" in Baldwin County,
near Ft. Mims. During the Creek War, it became "Ft. Pierce".66Id.
67p. 165. William "Mimms" later built Ft. Mims.
68Id.
69Id.
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