On June 21st 1967 at 2:30 EST. a simultaneous dedication in all Capital cities of Canada took place to honour the land surveyors of this country. The twelve Centennial monuments and plaques were unveiled to the public showing the important part the surveyor played in the exploration and mapping of our nation. Each capital city will have a brass cap which is a First Post in a unified system of precisely co-ordinated survey points. Some monuments have a document cache or a time capsule encased to be opened on our 200th birthday.
The first survey of land in Canada was made in 1625 on the St. Charles River near the City of Quebec and was made by the man recognized as Canada's first surveyor, Samuel de Champlain.
David Thompson, surveyor and explorer, made the earliest detailed maps of Alberta. He was born in London in 1770 and arrived on the prairies at the age of 16 to work with James Gaddy for the Hudsons Bay Company as a fur trader and surveyor. In 1797 he left the Hudson's Bay Company and joined the Northwest Company.By his own initiative and industry, he explored and surveyed more than a million and a half square kilometres of wilderness, accomplishing the staggering feat of mapping half a continent.
To Log your find e-mail a description of what is directly east and west of the Brass Cap. You can include pictures of the monument if you'd like.
First Post locations :
Ottawa
Whitehorse
Edmonton
Winnipeg
Fredericton (destroyed)
St John's
Charlottetown(under repair)
Halifax
Quebec City (destroyed)
Toronto
Victoria(destroyed)
Regina
Calgary Area Cachers Web page: