Sometimes the best way to understand what a surveyor does is to see it firsthand.
That’s what Widseth Land Surveyor and Polk County Surveyor Garrett Borowicz did recently when he met with Minnesota Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson in East Grand Forks. Instead of meeting in an office, Garrett took Johnson into the field to see a survey monument and learn how surveyors use it.
Garrett showed Mr. Johnson a cast-iron survey monument and explained how it will preserve the Public Land Survey System’s foundation for years to come. He also demonstrated how surveyors establish location ties so they can find the monument again.
Nearby, the two looked at a concrete roadway project where construction left a survey monument unreplaced. It was a practical example of why preserving and restoring monuments matters: when a monument isn’t replaced, it can disrupt reliable land measurement, complicating everything from construction planning to resolving property disputes.
The conversation also touched on property boundaries, which can sometimes lead to disagreements between neighboring property owners. Garrett explained how surveyors use research, field evidence, and professional judgment to help clarify boundaries and resolve questions before they become larger disputes.
For Garrett, it was simply a chance to explain his work with real examples from the field.
And that’s often the best way to understand surveying: get out of the office, find the monument, and see what surveyors do.
This story was inspired by an account published by the Minnesota Society of Professional Surveyors (MSPS). Learn more about MSPS at the Minnesota Society of Professional Surveyors.
