This object is a surveyor’s Gunther’s chain. A system of land surveying was developed by Edmund Gunter in the early 1600’s in England, and naturally adopted by the English colonies and continued by the new United States.

A chain originally was defined as 33 feet; but later as American settlement of the West expanded, was changed officially to 66 feet. Each chain is divided into 100 links.

Each link is 7.92 inches, connected by three little loops that allow the chain to be thrown out by the chain man without kinking. the Gunter’s measurement allowed easy conversion to the English method of land measurement. 10 square chains equals one acre, 80 chains equals one mile, etc. Most of American’s lands and properties were laid out by survey chains.

Valentown’s chain was possibly found in the leather travel trunk of Micah Brooks, who was one of the Phelps & Gorham’s surveyors. The land purchase was at first from the state of Massachusetts, who had property pre- emption rights and then from the Native American Iroquois. The chain is missing one pull handle but is potentially an important artifact from the Canandaigua Land Office starting from 1790. The Micah Brooks trunk is on display in the Valentown Museum.