The section of the boundary between the United States and Mexico along the Rio Grande from Presidio to the mouth of the Pecos River was surveyed by two American parties, one led by civilian surveyor M. T. W. Chandler in 1852, and the second led by Lieutenant Nathaniel Michler in 1853.
Our understanding of these two surveys across the greater Big Bend has long been limited to the official reports and maps housed in the National Archives and never widely published. The discovery by Orville B. Shelburne (UW-Madison MS’56, PhD’59) of the journal kept by Dr. Charles C. Parry, surgeon-botanist-geologist for the 1852 party, has dramatically enriched the story by giving us a firsthand view of the Chandler boundary survey as it unfolded. (Univ of OK Press)