Hello,
I have a question regarding government lots in the north boundary of a GLO-surveyed township. There is an acreage written on the official GLO plat for the government lot. The lot was patented in 1891, and eventually was divided into several portions along a north-south orientation, leaving the length north to south intact. On the ground, a deeded portion of the government lot has an old fence on three sides (minus the road side to the north) that is approximately in the "right" location given the acreage from the GLO plat and the field notes in terms of distance north to south. If one were to survey this parcel, would the fence, GLO plat, and field notes be taken into consideration, as opposed to simply relying on surrounding monuments in the section set over the years by timber companies, most of which are not original and are not well supported by the GLO field notes??ÿ
Decisions depend on evidence found in the field and during research. Too little of each in the OP to make any useful comment.
Give the Section Township Range and Government Lot number and be amazed at all that you will learn. This is a good time, surveyors in most parts of the country melt in the rain, and so spend a lot of the winter indoors on their favorite website.
Or be vague. But...by the time you give enough details that any answer is useful chances are about 95% that surveyors will know exactly where you are asking about.
would the fence, GLO plat, and field notes be taken into consideration
Sure as heck would hope so.?ÿ
@norm From your response, I realize I should have said, "If one were to survey the neighboring parcel that is based on a separately deeded adjacent portion of the same government lot as the one with the fence, would the fence, GLO plat, and field notes be taken into consideration? I assume the answer would be the same, but I wanted to make this clarification.
Please note that the area provided on the GLO plat may or may not be close to the real area.?ÿ Say that Lot showed 41.0 acres.?ÿ Say further that your deed suggests you have the East One-Fourth of said Lot.?ÿ You would think you would be entitled to precisely 10.25 acres,?ÿ In fact you are entitled to whatever acreage?ÿ a survey performed by a licensed land surveyor says it is.?ÿ That might be 10.35 acres or 10.03 acres depending on the true dimensions of the Lot.
@holy-cow Would the "true" dimensions be determined taking into consideration the GLO field notes and survey plat depicting the acreage for the government lot, especially given that the fence confirms the habitation pattern? Is the original acreage for the entire lot (not just the portion) determined by the GLO field notes and GLO survey plat, in whole or in part??ÿ
The GLO method of computing area is an approximation to the theoretical area, a decent one for most parcels, but is only numerically exact if the parcel is numerically exactly rectangular.
And that statement ignores any measurement error that also contributes to a difference.
Surveyors do take into account both the GLO notes and plats when dealing with modern surveys.?ÿ Fences are in a totally separate category.?ÿ ?ÿ From a legal standpoint, that is.?ÿ There are various legal terms that may come into play as to "ownership" versus "boundaries".?ÿ We do not pretend to be attorneys and can get into a bind if we start offering legal advice.
Another case for Government Lots occurs when a section is incomplete because it has hit a pre-existing line such as an Indian Treaty Boundary.?ÿ One side of that Boundary is generally surveyed at a different time from the other side.?ÿ Sometimes many years apart.?ÿ The lots may occur from any side, unlike the ones for township boundaries.?ÿ A similar case is when a State Line is hit.?ÿ
When speaking of Lots, there are three varieties, including the one mentioned above involving Indian Treaty Lines.?ÿ The one most people think of are the closing of sections against the earlier surveyed township and range lines.?ÿ The other form is along rivers where they cut through a section.?ÿ Those lots can grow and shrink over time as the river moves.?ÿ Sometimes a Lot can completely disappear because the river moves enough to eliminate the original area that was defined by that Lot.?ÿ This does not apply in your case, but threw this in as you have stated you are interested in Government Lots.
