Settlers on the Great Plains had to contend, both physically and psychologically, with what to them was a wilderness. They faced a featureless land that many described as "a sea of grass."

Europeans and Americans brought their own way of thinking about land with them, based on a system of longitude and latitude developed in the 18th century. Property lines were drawn on pieces of paper — maps — dividing one person's land from the next.

Occupational Portrait of an unidentified surveyor with tools, 1851.

When Nebraska became a territory, its northern and southern borders were drawn primarily along lines of latitude. Surveying the territory began almost immediately and the surveyors set markers to physically place the imaginary lines on the landscape. Sections, townships, precincts and acreages were created — arbitrary divisions and artificial boundaries to the seemingly limitless frontier.

The surveys allowed the U.S. government to sell what it considered public lands to railroads, private companies, and individuals. These corporations and individuals then further defined the land with roads, fences, and buildings, turning the wild sea of grasses into tame farms and ranches.

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