2026 Alex Sanger Preparatory School Outreach
Chris received a request from the adult leader from the Alex Sanger Preparatory School (Dallas ISD) Nature Explorer’s Club to present a program to 4th grade students at the historical Warren Ferris Cemetery across the street from the school. This was a return from a similar outreach done last year with the same group. It just so happened that Amanda Jonas, RPLS and Director of the Texas Spatial Reference Center was visiting Chris at the LTRA office earlier in the day, and she enthusiastically agreed to join and assist Chris for the presentation.
Chris had a Gurley compass and Gunter’s chain, borrowed from Lawrence Ringley, to demonstrate the type of survey equipment that Ferris would have utilized for his survey of Dallas County in 1850 after he settled on his own land east of White Rock creek. His surveys of Dallas County, and especially the Lagow and Grigsby Surveys, set the directions of the major city of Dallas streets and the grants east of the Trinity River.
The students were inquisitive and actually knew a bit about what surveyors do…”they measure things” and “they divide the land for people after people die”. Chris and Amanda demonstrated how the Ferris survey team would have measured with the chain and used the compass for the direction of the survey lines. A 1855 map of Dallas County was shown to illustrate the tracts of land with notable features that still exist today such as the Trinity River and various creeks that today’s surveyors have undoubtably had the pleasure to explore in their survey work.
Once again, this outreach was possible due to an initial commitment last year that made such a good impression that an unsolicited request came to do it again. We see this time and again, that the public is genuinely impressed and interested in what Surveyors do, the tools and technologies we employ, and the major impact and contributions we have on our world and communities. And our historical connections are impressive as are the opportunities with the many historical cemeteries that abound that contain the families of the pioneers that tie us to them through our research of land records.
Amanda even expressed that she enjoyed this educational outreach and how it opened her eyes to the opportunities that Surveyors have related to historical cemeteries. The connection to the Warren Ferris Cemetery came about years ago from now deceased author and historian Susanne Starling (Land is the Cry!) and Julie Fineman, Co-Creator, Constellation of Living Memorials.