Not too long ago I shot my trap off and agreed to help and old HS buddy with some land he and his wife recently received in a family trust.?ÿ I originally knew it was around 900 acres, but only after I agreed to survey the place did I find out that it was in three separate sections with a standard parallel running through the middle of it all.?ÿ Needless to say it has turned out to be a little more in depth than I imagined.
All of the land is occupied by a number of folks that have leased it for a very long time; one lessor has been there (with a house he constructed) over 40 years.?ÿ Almost all of it is cultivated or pasture for livestock.?ÿ None of the lessors are too happy that granny has turned the land over to her granddaughter.?ÿ She and my HS buddy are reviewing all the leases and "updating" (raising the rent) them to current market values as they come up for renewal.?ÿ A current survey seemed to be a logical consideration.?ÿ To aggravate the situation there have been three pipelines constructed through the area in the last year and there is always a little friction between the pipeline folks and the surface tenants.
There is only one section line road that runs east-west through the property and all the other section lines are closed.?ÿ This one fellow that has been there 40 years has a reputation as being a contrary old fart...and all the controlling corners wind up on his place it seems.?ÿ I called him to let him know I needed in to his pasture.?ÿ With no answer I left a message and continued on with my work.
I parked at a locked gate with the usual "NO TRESPASSING" sign...although the "TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT" sign didn't bother me much, the "SURVIVORS WILL BE SHOT AGAIN" sign was a little unnerving.?ÿ Although I was a quarter mile distant, I was still within sight of his house.?ÿ I could only assume he could see me if he was home...at least one of those junk trucks had to run.
I had my gear over the fence and was starting to beat a path down the fence when I heard him tell me, "You might want to stop right there.."
Jeezus he startled me.?ÿ No vehicle, no noise, just all the sudden he was THERE!?ÿ And he had a drop on me with a Browning 12 ga. ...
"Mr. Dawson??ÿ I'm the surveyor hired by Nadine's granddaughter Mary.?ÿ I left a message on your phone..."
He interrupted me, "I know who you are.?ÿ I ain't give you permission yet to be on my place."?ÿ He had dropped the barrel somewhat and was now pointing somewhere in the neighborhood of my knees.?ÿ Still not an optimum situation, but maybe improving a little..
I had leaned my rover against a pull post by now and was standing facing him with my hands on my hips.?ÿ?ÿI told him, "I hope you don't think I have a pretty mouth..."?ÿ (humor can be a good remedy for a tense situation sometimes)
"You're just a real fine smart-ass aren't ya?" he asked.
"One of the best, Mr. Dawson.?ÿ?ÿDo you always hold a gun on people you're talking to?"?ÿ He dropped the shotgun butt to the ground and held it by the muzzle.
We talked for a good half hour about the pipeline companies and all the crap he's put up with over the last year.?ÿ I was amazed how sympathetic I was to him...especially since he had the gun.?ÿ Dawson is a bachelor and I don't think he's talked to anybody since about Christmas.
He eventually unlocked the gate and we both drove the east and south line of the section.?ÿ Found some corners and one stone.?ÿ The stone has no pedigree since the GLO survey set posts, but it was within 1.5' of being at a calculated split.?ÿ I was happy.?ÿ He asked a lot of questions about GPS.
After we finished there I dropped him back off at his house.?ÿ He was friendly enough and we had a good talk.?ÿ I listened to him rail against the government and laud the current president with praise.?ÿ As he got out of my truck he admitted to me his shotgun wasn't loaded as he was out of shells and hadn't "been to town" in a while.?ÿ I opened my console and gave him a half-full box of steel shot 2 3/4" 12ga. shells that I was pretty sure would fit his Browning.?ÿ He was tickled.
It seemed like a good gesture to foster our trust.?ÿ He promised to answer his phone next time I called.?ÿ
All in a day's work I suspect. ?ÿ;)
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Added to the memoir...
I sorta get it the whole intimidation thing and the urge to be an insufferable jackass to perfect strangers but as surveyors we are recognizable in our equipment and such & I just do not react well with guns pointed at me as I am usually armed myself.?ÿ
I try hard to contact the neighbors and let them know what I am doing and will be as discreet and polite as possible. We can usually get what we need without the landowner ever knowing.?ÿ
Carry a gun.....sure..........by all means.......but dammit if that thing is pointed at me I am I am likely to shoot first. I have been shot at several times and have zero tolerance for that crap anymore.
Reminds me of a rather tense encounter last spring while looking for bench marks to do GPS on in an area where NGS needed more coverage.?ÿ
There had been one at a road crossing of a RR, but nothing remained visible from the RR bed decades after it was removed. I used historical aerials to figure out how far from the creek bridge to look.
So I wandered a few yards up and down the road ROW with my metal detector and found nothing.?ÿ
I saw a farmer coming across the field on his tractor, and another one pulled out on the other side in a truck.?ÿ I walked over to ask if they had ever seen a concrete post with a disk.
I was greeted with, "You're supposed to ask permission first."
I meekly replied, "I didn't think I was hurting anything in the road right of way." I tried to explain what I was looking for and why, but they weren't buying my explanation and continued to sound hostile.?ÿ
After some non-productive back and forth, I learned that the guy with the tractor grew seed corn parent lines for one of the big companies to use in their hybrids, and was the one who caught a guy digging up seeds to send to China and steal the genetics. It had been a big case all over the news the year before.
I think I eventually put some doubt in his mind that I was after his seeds, but when I repeated my question whether he knew about the benchmark, his reply was, "Maybe, but I don't give out information to people I don't know."
I left then, and was quite happy I got away with my hide and no cops were called.
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I have experienced almost every conceivable form of confrontation with property owners over my career.?ÿ From folks growing weed to (my favorite) one lonely housewife that needed me to come inside and "kill a bug on her bed" for her.?ÿ Out of all those many confrontations about a dozen of them included me getting a gun of some sort waived in my direction or at least brandished.?ÿ There's only been four times I've been shot at...and I believe only one of them was really aiming.?ÿ Thank God for timber cover.?ÿ Listening to rifle rounds ricochet off trees and through the brush around you is a rather unnerving feeling.?ÿ It makes one focus intently on what is going on.?ÿ My young helper shook for an hour afterwards.
A wise old surveyor once told me, "If you're going to get shot, you probably won't see them first".?ÿ So therefor if you find yourself with a weapon pointed at you there's a good chance you can merely comply with the superior attitude and keep your pink ass intact.?ÿ It's worked for me.
I do carry in my vehicle.?ÿ Due to some tricky Oklahoma laws it's not advisable to trespass on private property with a concealed weapon.?ÿ The only time my Colt has seen the light of day at work was plinking at turtles in the Fairview, OK municipal treatment pond with the Police Chief and the Public Works director.?ÿ Loser had to buy lunch...which just happened to be me.?ÿ I was hustled, those guys did it every day and saw a chance to get a free lunch.?ÿ 🙂
We were in Nevada desert 60 miles from no-where in the early 80??s and were using a concrete structure many miles away as a foresight.?ÿ Towards the end of the day and closer to the structure, I could see two guys on horseback riding up to my rodmen.?ÿ I got a call on the radio telling me there were two doberman??s and two men on horseback with guns drawn asking what we were doing.?ÿ I drove down, observed the dogs who had my guys at their best behavior and started telling our story to the horsemen.?ÿ After about 30 minutes, and being assured we meant no harm, tensions eased.?ÿ
They invited us up to the ranch, then after we told them we were camping out, they said we could stay in the bunkhouse.?ÿ They cooked us dinner and breakfast the next morning.?ÿ They said the ranch owner and his friends had flown in (private airstrip) and just left.?ÿ Said they were artists and sculptors and took us out to the barn to show the artwork they had been working on.?ÿ The owner was Michael Heinzer and his friend, Andy Warhol.?ÿ One of the horsemen was named ??Turtle?? and was the unofficial mayor of Lund.?ÿ
You meet some of the nicest people in the strangest ways.?ÿ
been shot at by a tweaker with an AR, who i didn't even know was there, and who i'm pretty sure thought i was of a four legged species.?ÿ made my self as low and flat as possible until he got all 30 rounds off, then went to ask him what the hell he was thinking.?ÿ ?ÿseeing as how he was across a creek (and fence line) he was REALLY contrite and begged me not to call the cops.?ÿ i probably don't- in a general sense- like cops any more than he did or, at least, want to involve them in my business if i don't have to.?ÿ but i didn't tell him that...
my favorite time, though, of actually being attacked by a property owner was the lady who came after me with one of those floppy plastic leaf rakes in her back yard.?ÿ the whole time caterwalling about "thief" and "shoo".?ÿ i said to her "lady, i'm sorry, but i'd be a damn sorry thief to be wandering down this property line with a bright yellow vest on and this metal detector that sounds like a cat in labor."?ÿ fortunately that line of logic seemed to register with her, and she turned around and walked off while muttering something or other about common courtesy...
Cripes I??ve never encountered some of the stuff y??all are gabbin?? about. Closest I ever came to a ??mishap? was getting run over by an 11 year Mexican kid driving a roach coach for all it was worth. Well that and stepping on a pygmy rattlesnake. Do any of y'all shoot back? ???? ?ÿ
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Cripes I??ve never encountered some of the stuff y??all are gabbin?? about. Closest I ever came to a ??mishap? was getting run over by an 11 year Mexican kid driving a roach coach for all it was worth. Well that and stepping on a pygmy rattlesnake. Do any of y'all shoot back? ?ÿ
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99.9% of my time in the field is mundane...if you discount the scenery.?ÿ But in the 50 years I have been surveying there have been incidents like this one that stick in my mind.
Surveying is similar to what someone said about being a pilot:?ÿ Hours of boredom peppered with moments of sheer terror.?ÿ
PS - I gotta know..who ran faster, you or the pigmy rattler?
Recently, we got into a confrontation with a land owner while setting on a control point in a county road right-of-way to do a survey for a sub-station.
He insisted that he owned the road, and sounded like he was going to call the authorities.
You can't reason with some people.
I also had lady get all upset when I staked a property corner across her fence, I figured she would be happy since I was a few feet inside my client's property and she was the neighbor. She said she had buried her dead cat right there where the corner went.
But usually it's the 4 legged or the slithering kind that gets me going. The same day I saw some lion tracts following my boot tracks in the snow a cow moose with a calf nearby charged me. Luckily there was a tree next to me I could dive behind, she turned and ran back to her calf, probably worried about the lion.
A loony neighbor went to the Register of Deeds office to complain that "fake" surveyors were trying to steal his land. ?ÿLearned that today when I was filing the plat.
The man threatens you with a shotgun, later tells you it wasn't loaded, so you give him ammunition. That says something, I'm not sure what, about the different worlds we all live in.
A few years ago I was threatened by a person locally known to be nuts accompanied by a DPNR official who screamed that if it was his land I was stealing, he would have shot me by now. I got upset and thought I was having a heart attack. Turned out I did have a blocked artery and needed a stent. Maybe they saved my life.
The man threatens you with a shotgun, later tells you it wasn't loaded, so you give him ammunition. That says something, I'm not sure what, about the different worlds we all live in...
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I thought about that.?ÿ Both at the moment and afterwards.?ÿ
All I could come up with in my head is I'm pretty sure he really wasn't threatening me...he was defending his property.?ÿ Although pointing a weapon at someone is an aggressive action; there's a difference.?ÿ A small difference perhaps, but important.?ÿ I somehow knew he wasn't wanting to shoot me.?ÿ He just wanted to get my attention.?ÿ It worked. 😉
I think human behavior in like situations is similar to old silver backed alpha gorillas asserting their dominance.?ÿ They puff up, growl, beat their chests, tear up foliage and may even charge...but rarely make any contact.?ÿ Assuming a submissive and docile posture without making eye contact is your best bet.?ÿ To tell the truth I was probably more worried about an accidental discharge than anything else.
And I didn't give a man that threatened me the box of shells.?ÿ I can't explain it, but after an hour and a half of surveying and chatting in the truck with Dawson we were buddies.?ÿ I'm actually headed back out there this week.?ÿ Maybe he'll have some of his homemade beef jerky he promised me.?ÿ ;)?ÿ?ÿ
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Of all the beef jerky, I've ever eaten, homemade is the best!
The man threatens you with a shotgun, later tells you it wasn't loaded, so you give him ammunition. That says something, I'm not sure what, about the different worlds we all live in.
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Oklahoman's have a different sort of attitude about guns. Like New Yorkers and power ties. Like Portland-ians and coffee. It's not so much a weapon as it is an accessory.
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Paden, If you compiled your stories and sold the book on Amazon. I would buy the book just to leave it sitting on the coffee table so others can read and understand why some love land surveying.?ÿ Jp
The man threatens you with a shotgun, later tells you it wasn't loaded, so you give him ammunition. That says something, I'm not sure what, about the different worlds we all live in.
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Oklahoman's have a different sort of attitude about guns. Like New Yorkers and power ties. Like Portland-ians and coffee. It's not so much a weapon as it is an accessory.
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Ain't that the truth?
Money Penny has been happy with her Beretta .25 "purse pistol" for 25 years, until she saw one that was pink anodized with mother-of-pearl grips.?ÿ I guess if a girl is going to have to use deadly force she needs to be stylish about it....
Paden, If you compiled your stories and sold the book on Amazon. I would buy the book just to leave it sitting on the coffee table so others can read and understand why some love land surveying.?ÿ Jp
Maybe someday soon some of my stories will hit the shelves.?ÿ Until then you just have to stay tuned to Wendell's message board.?ÿ There and my hard drives are currently the only places in which my memoires reside.?ÿ
Maybe your encounter ended amicably?ÿ because of the benefit of not being of color or ethnicity.?ÿ Just an assumption based on the chit chat that you mentioned.?ÿ
The concept that?ÿ a property boundary is considered a higher value than a possible loss of a life doesn't work for me. I would have wrote him off from the get-go. I don't think some?ÿ Okie folksy Will Rogers remark would be applicable . " I never met a man that I didn't like, until one crazed with some asinine dogma?ÿ had me at the end of a gun. "
