Likely unknown to a large number or our present members is the fact that our present Society is the third organization in Michigan which has been started by Land Surveyors to deal with the practical and professional aspects of land surveying. Prior to 1900, it clearly appears that land surveying was a major part of the practice of the Civil Engineers involving the laying out of land locations directly dependent on the U.S. land survey locations and involving railroad and town site locations and layout, the conversions of wild lands to agricultural uses and the lumbering operations and mining industries. It was not until 1919 that a registration law came into being. Land surveying and engineering surveying were being done, more or less, by a separate group of individuals, and Land Surveying was separated from Engineering by statute.

History of MSPS
Compiled by George D. Henning
Founding Member and Past President of the Michigan Society of Registered Land Surveyors

Likely unknown to a large number or our present members is the fact that our present Society is the third organization in Michigan which has been started by Land Surveyors to deal with the practical and professional aspects of land surveying. Prior to 1900, it clearly appears that land surveying was a major part of the practice of the Civil Engineers involving the laying out of land locations directly dependent on the U.S. land survey locations and involving railroad and town site locations and layout, the conversions of wild lands to agricultural uses and the lumbering operations and mining industries. It was not until 1919 that a registration law came into being. Land surveying and engineering surveying were being done, more or less, by a separate group of individuals, and Land Surveying was separated from Engineering by statute.

In a history which was compiled by the Michigan Engineering Society about 1925, it was noted that in August, 1868, the "Surveyors and Civil Engineers Association of Michigan" was formed in Lansing.

A second meeting of this group was held as the "Second Annual Convention of The Michigan Surveyors and Civil Engineers Association" at Grand Rapids on May 5-6, 1869. An account of that meeting was found in a newspaper clipping.

Editor's Note: It is very interesting to note they were then pointing out the inadequacy of the laws pertaining to land surveying and land surveyors, yet the same laws exist today with very little improvement except licensing.

Likely this organization did not get very far. It is further found that in 1880 a call was sent out in February for a meeting of civil engineers and surveyors.