The United States Lake Survey (USLS) was a hydrographic survey for the Great Lakes, New York Barge Canal, Lake Champlain and the Boundary Waters of the Canada–United States border between Minnesota and Ontario. The Survey's activities began on 31 March 1841, with the goal of surveying the Great Lakes. The Lake Survey was created within the United States Army Topographical Engineers (later the United States Army Corps of Engineers). Like the Commerce Department's Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Lake Survey had responsibility for the preparation and publication of nautical charts and other navigational aids. By 1882, the Survey had completed the original Congressional mandate, producing 76 charts, then disbanded. By 1901, the original survey and charting products required revision. The Lake Survey was reconstituted and its mission expanded. In addition to traditional survey, charting, and navigation information responsibilities, the Lake Survey was also responsible for studies on lake levels and associated river flow.
Early history (1841–56) The United States Lakes Survey was created on 31 March 1841 by an act of Congress, appropriating $15,000 for a United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers led survey of the Great Lakes. William G. Williams was appointed the first commander of the survey. He was assisted by Howard Stansbury, James H. Simpson, Joseph E. Johnston, Thomas J. Cram and I. Carle Woodruff. They were headquartered at the mouth of the Buffalo River. In the first summer, a detailed topographical survey of Mackinac Island was completed, reconnaissance surveys in the northern part of Lake Michigan were made and a site for a baseline near the entrance to Green Bay was selected and partly cleared.
The first four years of the survey largely dealt with the baseline at Green Bay, and building triangulation stations. Surveying work was additionally done on Lakes Michigan, St. Clair, and Erie, and at the Straits of Mackinac. To conduct hydrographic surveys, in 1843, an iron steamer named the Abert (after John James Abert) was built for the survey. Flaws in the ship's design were soon discovered, and it was overhauled and renamed Surveyor in early 1845. By the end of 1845, all harbors besides those in Lake Superior had been surveyed.
James Kearney replaced Williams in 1845, relocating the survey to Detroit. Work was temporarily halted for most of the Mexican–American War. After the war, work resumed and the west end of Lake Erie was completed in 1849. John N. Macomb took command of the lake survey in 1851. It greatly increased in size and appropriations. It published its first charts in 1852–covering all of Lake Erie. During the 1852–55 seasons, the areas surveyed by the Lake Survey included the Straits of Mackinac and the approaches to either side of Mackinac Island, part of the north end of Lake Michigan, all of the St. Marys River, and a few harbors on Lake Superior. As a result of this work the Lake Survey published three new charts. A second steamer, the Jefferson Davis (after Jefferson Davis) was launched in 1856, and soon renamed Search.
Meade years (1857–61) On 20 May 1857, Kearney was replaced by George Meade. Meade completed the survey of Lake Huron during the 1857–59 seasons and completed the survey of Saginaw Bay as well. He surveyed the Fox and Manitou Islands, and Grand and Little Traverse Bays. The Lake Survey completed a few local harbor surveys on Lake Superior by 1859 and began a general survey of the western end of that lake in 1861. He oversaw a dramatic expansion in the survey, including the construction of an observatory in Detroit and the first systematic recording of lake water levels.
In 1859, a network of 19 meteorological stations around the Lakes were completed. From 1858 through 1861, the federal appropriations for the Lake Survey grew to $75,000 annually. Meade would later write that he considered his early work on the lakes survey as among the most important duties of his extensive career. Upon the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, he offered his services to the Union Army.