This is an effort to organize materials by various parts of William Roy Bandy's life and career, as well as provide bits of information about certain interesting things.
MISCELLANEOUS BANDY WRITINGS
1885 - 1904 Early years
Incomplete undated manuscript beginning "perilous times.", one page total. The Surveyor - A Good Life Bandy Manuscript - Received May 2022 1905 - 1907 First surveying in Wyoming
Billings Gazette 1962-04-01 - The Pay Was Small But It Was a Good Life Reminisencences [sic] of Early Experiences of a Government Surveyor The Garland Country Incomplete manuscript beginning "I arrived at Garland, Wyoming . . .", nine pages total. Incomplete manuscript beginning "The field men . . .", three pages total. Incomplete manuscript beginning "An old hoot owl . . .", two pages total. Incomplete manuscript, page numbered 17, beginning "There was a story going around . . .", one page total. The Surveyor - A Good Life Bandy Manuscript - Received May 2022 1907 - 1910 Tunnels and canals
Annals of Wyoming 1966-04 - Ghosts Took Over the Tunnel Billings Gazette 1964-03-22 - Ghosts Took Over the Tunnel The Wiley Tunnels The Surveyor - A Good Life Bandy Manuscript - Received May 2022 1911 - 1913 Surveying in Wyoming as GLO employee
Incomplete manuscript, beginning "In setting the section corners . . .", three pages total. Image of section corner on top of Heart Mountain. Incomplete manuscript, dated 1971, begins "of the Crow Indian Reservation.", ten pages total. Incomplete manuscript, section title reads "Investigations of Original 1880 Surveys", two pages total. Black Bear on Wood River The Surveyor - A Good Life Bandy Manuscript - Received May 2022 1912 Breakfast on the Big Horns
Image of oil painting titled "Breakfast on the Big Horns". Published Bandy Accounts of Breakfast on the Big Horns Manuscript titled "Breakfast on the Big Horns" 1960 Boyd Ridge USGS quadrangle map, 1:24000 scale Helena Independent Record 1970-04-19 - Painting by 'Shorty' Shope to be Viewed at Reception 2023 article by Glenn Borkenhagen Searching for Roy Bandy's 1912 Campsite Bandy Manuscript - Received May 2022 1912 Crossing the Big Horn River
Great Falls Tribune 1961-09-03 - Big Horn Crossing Hazards Recalled Big Horn Crossing Hazards 1914 - 1930 Surveying in Montana as GLO employee
The Missouri Breaks - Montana's Stupendous Badlands Incomplete undated manuscript beginning "Probably the roughest, highest, and most spectacular shapes . . .", one page total. Indian Fair The Surveyor - A Good Life Bandy Manuscript - Received May 2022 1931 - 1933 Surveying revised Yellowstone National Park boundaries
Great Falls Tribune 1960-09-11 "Fun" With Grizzlies Brings Close Squeaks The Madisonian (Virginia City, Montana) 1932-08-26 - Our Mountains Bear Their Names Peaking at Yellowstone Two Grizzly Bears Untitled, begins: Have you ever sat up in a tree top and watch a grizzly bear eat your supper? The Surveyor - A Good Life Bandy Manuscript - Received May 2022 1936 Retracing the North Boundary of Wyoming
The Survey of the North Boundary of Wyoming, undated article by W.R. Bandy Public Land Surveys in Ts 9 S. Rs 14 and 15E Montana and Retracement of the North Boundary of Wyoming, undated article by W.R. Bandy Folder containing links to three published versions of this survey. 1936 Surveying the area east of Pryor Mountains
Billings Gazette 1966-02-13 - Crew Surveys the 'Impossible' Helena Independent Record 1966-02-13 - W.R. Bandy Relates Task of Surveying Rugged Pryors Big Horn Canyon - East Side of Pryors Bandy Manuscript - Received May 2022 1946-1954 Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Project
Incomplete undated manuscript titled "Division of Engineering", one page total. The Surveyor - A Good Life Undated - Public Land Survey System
Public Land Surveys - History and Accomplishments Incomplete undated manuscript titled "Introduction to an article following", two pages total. Autobiographical writings
The Surveyor - A Good Life Incomplete undated manuscript beginning "The U.S. General Land Office . . .", one page total. Incomplete undated manuscript beginning "In the succeeding chapters . . .", one page total. Twenty-Five Years Among the Grizzlies Bandy Manuscript - Received May 2022 OTHER RELATED ITEMS Awards
Distinguished Service Award from United States Department of the Interior Helena Independent Record 1955-05-29 - William R. Bandy, Former Helena Resident, Honored with Highest Award for Land Service Helena Independent Record 1972-07-02 - William Bandy Receives MSU Service Award Bandy History by Lola Cazier??
William Roy Bandy History Correspondence
Correspondence with Mr. James A. Thigpenn, III of St. Regis Paper Company / Jacksonville, Florida Splinter
Ripley's Believe It or Not and Great Falls Tribune
Bandy relates a story of his mother as a young child during the Civil War putting a kitten in a hat box while a group of soldiers were at their home. Then he discusses how sometimes a picture needs to have words to describe the situation that made the picture possible. Then a discussion of how we tend to remember the good times and forget the bad times.
Pages 1/21 and 2/21 briefly touch on Bandy's early years in Missouri.
Pages 3/155 through 14/155 of this manuscript provide Bandy's account of growing up in Missouri.
Bandy's newspaper article on his early years of surveying in Wyoming.
Unpublished 14-page manuscript dated 1962 in pencil. Covers Bandy’s first few years as a government surveyor in Wyoming, both with the GLO and the Bureau of Reclamation. He discusses the observations of the country and its inhabitants, survey work, camp life, an incident in which a draft horse became frightened by a nearby steam locomotive and ended up standing in the wagon to which he was hitched.
Unpublished and undated four-page manuscript. Transcribed. Describes the area around Garland, Wyoming. Much discussion of rattlesnakes. This is where Bandy was first introduced to surveying, first as an employee of a GLO contractor, then later as an employee of the Bureau of Reclamation working on the Garland Canal of the Shoshone (irrigation) Project. He relates a story of a possible error in his staking an elevation on an irrigation drop structure that required blasting to remove new improperly placed concrete. It turned out to be an error by the construction crew.
A detailed discussion of Bandy's first surveying experiences as a cornerman, with discussion of his companions, local wildlife, and camp life.
Another treatment of Bandy's first surveying work as a cornerman, with discussion of his employers, his companions, the work, and camp life.
A historical-sort of account in which Bandy describes the heritage of land surveyors such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and the national mission of providing opportunity for settlers by making land available for homesteading at the beginning of the 20th century when he began his land-surveying career.
A story about a man in the Garland area who had three wives (another version of this appears on page 29/155 of the “155-page Bandy Manuscript”), then a discussion of how distant peaks can be much farther away than they initially appear. The page numbering on this page appears to be the same style as in the incomplete manuscript beginning "An old hoot owl . . .".
Pages 2/21 through 6/21 recall Bandy's first years in surveying, including being appointed a U.S. Deputy Surveyor for Wyoming in 1906.
Pages 14/155 through 38/155 of this manuscript provide Bandy's account of his first land-surveying experiences.
A published article recounting the construction of a tunnel for an irrigation canal on the Wiley Project south of Cody, Wyoming. The article concludes with a visit to the area more than 50 years later with a longtime friend Mr. Bandy met while working on the project.
The story as it appeared in a Montana newspaper.
Transcription of a manuscript which seems to be the basis (earlier??) for the articles that appeared in Annals of Wyoming and the Billings Gazette, but it contains some additional details.
Pages 6/21 through 10/21 of this document recount Bandy's work on irrigation projects.
Pages 39/155 through 56/155 of this manuscript provide Bandy's telling of working on the Wiley Canal. Also a partial story about his first deer hunt on Carter Mountain.
Bandy tells of setting the section corner on top of Heart Mountain, which is in Wyoming, not Montana. He recounts everyone in the party, including his wife Inez, went to the top of the mountain and enjoyed the views in all directions. Then he tells of a horse being bitten by a rattlesnake, the only actual snake-bite incident of his career.
Taken on 24 September 2020 by Glenn Borkenhagen.
This covers the period from August to December 1912. It begins with another telling of the “Breakfast on the Big Horns” story, then meeting W.T. Thorne, an older surveyor who was known for doing excellent work. Next Bandy tells of surveying in the Little Big Horn River area of Sheridan County, Wyoming, being hindered by a major snowstorm in mid-September, then moving camp across the Crow Indian Reservation via St. Xavier, Montana on the way back to Wyoming. He wraps up by telling of disbanding the party in December and then spending the winter of 1912-1913 in Cheyenne at the office of the Surveyor General of Wyoming.
Bandy tells of being tasked with investigating original surveys in the Wood River area of Park County, Wyoming. He reported that the original surveyors monumented corners along valleys where they could anticipate homestead claims being filed, but neglected setting corners in the rougher country between the valleys. Also discovered were entire townships that had never been surveyed although unscrupulous contractors said they had done the work and collected their payment for the same.
An undated, unpublished three-page manuscript about bagging a black bear along the Wood River during 1913.
Pages 10/21 through 13/21 of this document describe this period of Bandy's career.
Pages 58/155 through 60/155 of this manuscript describe part of 1913, Bandy's last full year in Wyoming.
This painting, created in 1970, was based on a 1912 snapshot of an overnight campground, which was notable for the novelty of a snowbank persisting until August. It was commissioned in memory of Roy Bandy's wife Inez, the cook in the picture.
An assortment of accounts of this event.
Another telling of the story, this one is from a comb-bound manuscript in the Bandy records.
Scan of map that was hand marked in later years by Bandy to indicate the campsite location. Subsequent investigation indicates his mark is about 1.2 miles north of the actual site which is on the Bald Mountain quad, the next map to the south in that series.
An article on the first showing of the painting titled "Breakfast on the Big Horns" by Irwin "Shorty" Shope. Appears in the center of the page below the fold.
PDFs of issues of magazines of three state surveying associations containing the print version of the article titled "Searching for Roy Bandy's 1912 Campsite" by Glenn Borkenhagen.
PDF of online version of the article by Glenn Borkenhagen, with hyperlinks and endnotes.
Pages 106/155 through 113/155 contain another Bandy telling of this story. Page 114/155 has a hand-drawn map of their route.
Bandy's story of crossing the Big Horn River in southern Montana.
This appears to be the manuscript from which the Great Falls Tribune article was taken.
A transcribed February 1964 writing by Bandy. It describes performing surveys north of the Missouri River and south of the Bears Paw Mountains, with much discussion of camp life during the late 1910s.
This was written as a preface to an article about surveying in the Missouri Breaks. Bandy mentions the controversy at the time of his writing regarding construction of a dam or dams between Fort Benton and the Fort Peck Reservoir. During the 1960s and 1970s there was a proposal to construct a 365-foot high dam near where Cow Creek flows into the Missouri River, approximately 20 miles above Fred Robinson Bridge. That would have created a 94,000-acre reservoir that would have extended to Fort Benton. In 1975 that section of river was included in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, which prevented construction of the dam or dams.
An unpublished manuscript, gives an account of Bandy's survey party attending an Indian Fair at Hayes on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation sometime during the 1917-1919 period.
Pages 13/21 through 16/21 lightly cover this period.
Pages 60/155 through 104/155 of this manuscript cover the period from 1914 through 1923.
An article recounting the experiences Mr. Bandy's survey party had with wildlife while surveying the revised eastern boundary of YNP. This is included mainly because of the dramatic photos of the survey.
An article on the names of mountains, inspired by Bandy's recent naming of four peaks in the Absaroka range.
Undated, unpublished manuscript telling of Bandy suggesting names for four unnamed peaks in Yellowstone National Park while surveying the eastern boundary in 1931 and 1932. All four names were officially adopted by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. Also some other details involved with the survey.
Undated, unpublished four-page manuscript telling of a 1931 prank that took an unexpected turn and could have been disastrous.
Undated, unpublished five-page manuscript telling of a 1932 incident in which two packers for the Yellowstone survey encountered a hungry grizzly bear while on a trip to get supplies.
Pages 16/21 of this document briefly touches on this assignment.
Pages 141/155 through 153/155 of this manuscript provide an account of this survey. He tells of naming four peaks in the area.
This is a transcription of undated article by W.R. Bandy covering the original survey by Rollin Reeves during 1879 and 1880. It mentions the Bureau of Land Management so it was written in 1946 or later.
This article tells of Bandy's assignment to complete section surveys in two townships generally south of Cooke City, Montana. This work required retracing the south boundary of Montana (the north boundary of Wyoming). An interesting feature is his telling of finding a 49.10-chain (over 6/10 of a mile) error in the original boundary survey.
The specific publications are Civil Engineering, The Helena Independent, and the Montaneer.
Transcription of seven-page article by W.R. Bandy that may have been the basis for published articles in the Billings Gazette and the Independent Record. This seems to be the most comprehensive version of the survey of the area in the east Pryor Mountains and mentions that Roy Romberg was deceased at the time of writing. Bandy states “In the nearly thirty years that have elapsed . . .”, which indicates this was written around 1966. This is the only known version that records the township in which they worked, specifically T8S R28E PMM.
Pages 130/155 through 134/155 of this manuscript provide Bandy's telling of this story. It begins "This is the beginning of another recording by W.R. Bandy in August 1970, ..."
Bandy, apparently writing in the third person, describes his group recently completing cadastral surveys of 1,339,880 acres in the six-state region covered by the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Project, then transitions to discussing George Washington working as a land surveyor.
Pages 16/21 through 21/21 of this document outline Bandy's involvement in this project.
This appears to have been prepared for a group presentation by Bandy. He states he is an employee of the BLM, which would date this document at sometime between 1946 and 1954.
Bandy briefly covers the origin of the rectangular system of public land surveys and extols its benefits. Also describes how surveyors preceded the settlers.
Begins with childhood in Missouri, then going to Wyoming, learning about surveying and engineering, working on irrigation projects, working for the General Land Office in Wyoming and Montana, training young mules, naming four peaks while surveying the revised boundaries of Yellowstone National Park, selling the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on the idea of using re-established section corners as control for aerial mapping of Reclamation projects, using anthills as photographically identifiable points, and serving as a consultant on land-ownership issues on lands innundated by Lake Sakakawea formed by Garrison Dam during his first two years of retirement.
This seems to have been written as an introduction to an autobiography.
This seems to have been written as an early page of an autobiography, perhaps following the incomplete one-page manuscript beginning “The U.S. General Land Office . . ., but since the page numbers at the page tops do not seem to follow in sequence this is questionable. Bandy promises to discuss camp life, encounters with wild animals, and difficulties in performing the survey work. Then he explains how some earlier surveys had been poorly and even fraudulently in certain cases, which required extensive resurveys that began around the time he was hired by the GLO in 1911.
Beginning with his introduction the the West and its wildlife at Garland, Wyoming in 1905, fascination with horse-drawn freight wagons, life in survey camps, pack trains, training young mules, packers, camp cooks, camp beds, field boots, the merits of the solar transit, encounters with grizzly bears, wild horses, mountain lions, black bears, Inez meeting William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody, more grizzlies, wolves, and finally a bull buffalo.
This is an unfinished 155-page manuscript received by Glenn Borkenhagen from a retired BLM land surveyor during May 2022. Information on the methods Mr. Bandy was using to create this document is available here.
Awarded to William R. Bandy, signed by Secretary of the Interior, Douglas McKay.
Article at top center of page.
Article at top center of page.
Indications are this was written by Ms. Lola Cazier, author of Surveys and Surveyors of the Public Domain - 1785-1975 which was published in 1976 by U.S. Government Printing Office. Some sections appear word-for-word in that book. She may have sent this to Bandy for proofing and comments? This contains details not seen elsewhere in the Bandy materials or in the Cazier book.
As covered by "Ripley's Believe It or Not" and the Great Falls Tribune, a fall in heavy timber during 1940 left a 3-inch wood splinter in Bandy's leg for 17 years.