Photo by Linda Harris Robert Akins, president of the National Society of Professional Surveyors, talks Friday about the role Old Fort Steuben played in the development of the Northwest Territory with Ann Besch, seated, senior lecturer and cofounder of the Surveying and Mapping Program at the University of Akron, and Judy Bratten of Historic Fort Steuben.

STEUBENVILLE — Weeks from now Historic Fort Steuben, working with the University of Akron and the Professional Land Surveyors of Ohio, will be ready to unveil its newest permanent display — a Museum of Surveying, a nod to the role the Seven Ranges played in development of the Northwest Territory.

The museum will be housed in the reconstructed fort — something Ann Besch, a senior lecturer at the University of Akron, and Robert Akins, president of the National Society of Professional Surveyors, say makes perfect sense.

“The fort was here,” Akins said Friday. “It was built by soldiers, sent here into the Northwest Territory to protect land surveyors laying out the Seven Ranges.”

Besch said the Land Ordinance of 1785 spelled out the process by which lands west of the Appalachian Mountains were to be surveyed and sold -by dividing the lands into townships of 36 square miles each, then dividing each township into 1-square mile sections.

Bratten said the surveyors of the Ohio Country set the stage for the westward expansion of the United States, with East Liverpool as the point of beginning. The system is still in use today.

“It was landmark legislation,” Besch said. “Everyone hears about the Northwest Ordinance that provided for the government of the new Northwest Territory and how new states would be formed, but the Land Ordinance of 1785 specified how that land would be divided.”

Judy Bratten, executive director of Historic Fort Steuben, said the museum will trace the history of surveying from the ropes and measuring sticks used by the Egyptians to the drones and GPS units that are commonplace in modern surveying. She said they’ll use informational panels, dioramas, displays and interactive elements to teach visitors about surveying and the role the Seven Ranges played.

The museum also will be a memorial and tribute to the late Thomas “Mike” Besch, Ann’s husband, who Bratten said was “an important resource” as Fort Steuben was reconstructed.

“He and other members of the Professional Land Surveyors of Ohio helped us understand the challenges that the surveyors of the Northwest Territory faced as they were assigned to map out the wilderness in the 1780s,” Bratten said. “And they return every year to bring early surveying to life at our annual festival. Sadly, Mike passed away in 2016 but his surveyor wife, Ann, and his compatriots have continued his work.”

Bratten said they’ve incorporated the procedures of chain and compass surveying in the fort’s tours and classes.

“By working with these period tools, the students can actually see the difficulties that the surveyors had,” she said. “They can better appreciate the challenges that our forebears faced in building this nation. I know that having this museum will strengthen our presentation and be a great educational tool.”

Organizers also see it as part of the statewide US250-Ohio celebration, commemorating the state’s contributions to the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026. Bratten plans have Phase 1 of the museum ready for this year’s Ohio Valley Frontier Days, June 1-2 at the fort.

The Beschs started the Surveying and Mapping Program at the University of Akron in 1994, and Ann Besch has encouraged her students to help develop the museum by designing exhibits and building displays. Akins has also been involved in planning and constructing the displays. Funding has come from donations and gifts, friends of the Beschs and Ohio surveyors, but they are seeking additional funding through grants.

“This will be the only museum in the country dedicated to land surveying and we hope it will inspire young people to pursue the field as a profession,” Besch said.

That’s important, Besch and Akins said, because they need to attract new blood to their profession.

“We want to inspire young people to think of surveying as a profession, it’s a good profession,” Akins said. “It’s well paying-you can raise a family on it and it also allows you a lot of freedom, especially if you like to go anywhere you want to go.”

Akins said starting salary is around $20 an hour for someone “just out of high school and a dummy, more or less fetching and toting.” A certified surveyor in Ohio can easily make $40 an hour “if you want to work for someone else,” he said.

“You can have your own business and work as hard as you want, or you can just get by,” he said. “You can work every day and come home at 4:30 p.m. and have every weekend off, or you can be like me, have your own business and have 10 people working for you, but I worked about 70 hours a week.”

The fort, located at 120 S. Third St., is open daily from May through October. The Fort Steuben Visitor Center is weekdays year-round with exhibits on the history of the fort and area.

Bratten said anyone interested in donating to the project can do so on their website, OldFortSteuben.com.