I think mine was a state line wood post almost perfectly preserved.
I missed out on a eight foot long monolith that was there when I searched for it but it had collapsed into rubble. I did find two called for six foot long stones in the same section.?ÿ
It's hard to pick a favorite. A state line monument that my paint around it might have saved from a dozer?
The Tri-station underground mark 27 inches down (surface mark gone) that has the name of my hometown on it?
One of the ones where I found a major mistake on the NGS data sheets? Or found a previously reported NF by NGS?
The first destroyed bench mark I ever found (on Christmas Eve and had to ride an hour with cold muddy hands) and took home to report its demise?
Or the one I saw in 1960, not having any idea what it was, and is now gone?
Chiseled stone at the corner common to S31 & S32, T4S, R11W and S5 & S6, T5S, R11W, Tunica, MS; gun barrels & grader blades marking 1/4 corners in the Mississippi Delta.
The last one I found. The next one I find will become my new favorite.
In New York’s northern Catskill Mtns. there are thousands of miles of stone walls built on property lines that are monuments to the hard work of those who settled that area. They are also monuments to the surveyors who marked those lines.
Cedar staub, rifle barrel, railroad tie, and modern rebar I found deep in the woods as I was on my way to set my own where I thought it should lie : )
This one was easily found but is the NC/SC State line corner
Dang. That is a really tough question. There have been so many. Everything from an arrow-shaped stone that was set along an Indian Treaty Boundary to one that had been protected when the county seat town built a sidewalk many years ago with a cutout rectangle/square in the concrete sidewalk so as to not injure the stone. From the buried stone in an old dirt road about 10 feet from a deep-buried natural gas line that we found by hearing the SKREEEECH of the backhoe bucket fingers on the very first drag to the quarter corner stone that was found to be splitting in the 1950's so the County Engineer preserved it in place by putting a horseshoe on it to keep it together. From the chiseled "X" in flat bedrock fully exposed to the hole about three inches in diameter in a boulder about 25 feet across and three to four feet high out in the middle poor cow pasture. @squirl might remember that one south of Humboldt on cement plant property.
Edit: had to correct "in an old dirt toad" to "in an old dirt road". Whoops.
Retracing a BLM survey done in 1950, recovered 2 of 3 4"x4" cedar posts, rotted off at ground level, under 4' of snow at -20F, 6 miles off the nearest road. Every now and then I surprise myself, maybe I know what I'm doing after all!
It is possible to amaze ourselves sometimes, isn't it?
A buddy had a similar situation many years ago out in a wheat field of a few hundred acres in a river bottom area. Absolutely, nothing to tie to except the long-deceased surveyor's notes from dedades earlier that had half-mile and mile distances to other monuments that could be found. He told his helper, "Well, it should be somewhere near HERE." as he stabbed his shovel into the soil. The shovel clanged and bounced back up. Yup. That was it.
@holy-cow You know what they say about a blind hog finding an acorn now and then. (:
This is directly above the bar at the true corner. Those are not my ugly feet in the first picture, but, I did stand on the "manhole" lid.
One of my favorites was a handsome hewn limestone 6"x6"x31" set at the corner of the county seat town cemetery by the county surveyor about 100 years earlier. I always enjoyed following his footsteps. He shaped and marked his stones and noted the exact sizes. This one matched the record. He gave his distances in chains and links and more often than not the EDM distance checked within a link or two. This particular corner checked within 1 link. in a quarter mile. There had been no record of recovery since he set it. When we went to reference it low and behold we found the county surveyor's grave within 100 ft of the stone. I hope he didn't mind we used his gravestone as a reference to his survey stone.
Norm reminded me of another interesting one I found. In the hometown cemetery there is a 1901 monument for compass calibration. Azimuths were given in a C&GS publication to two building spires, both unfortunately gone. I got an article in the county newspaper about it. Also did an OPUS Share to preserve the history.
I hope he didn't mind we used his gravestone as a reference to his survey stone.
I think he would have been proud.
Leading my retired farmer clients way back in the woods to their rear corner and saying their should be a pipe here from the 30's. I took a step forward and tripped as the pipe had gone inside of my pants. Mrs farmer says so thats how you find them. Mr. Farmer says you got the job.
Another one was a called for rod in a 3' wide stream. I walk back with the clients on a compass bearing hit the stream reach down in the mud and pull it out to the clients look of total astonishment.
Couldn't do those again if i tried, better to be lucky than good
Leading my retired farmer clients way back in the woods to their rear corner and saying their should be a pipe here from the 30's. I took a step forward and tripped as the pipe had gone inside of my pants. Mrs farmer says so thats how you find them. Mr. Farmer says you got the job.
Another one was a called for rod in a 3' wide stream. I walk back with the clients on a compass bearing hit the stream reach down in the mud and pull it out to the clients look of total astonishment.
Couldn't do those again if i tried, better to be lucky than good
If I watched you pull my property corner I’d also be giving you a look of astonishment. Lol
The last one I found. The next one I find will become my new favorite.
Mine too
Lots of memorable corners, but think working in South Dakota retracing corners in the late 1990's retracing corners set in the 1890's. The surveyor (Daniel Major, if I remember corectly) said he was setting marked stones buried 12 in deep, with the pits appropriate for the corners. But he also stated burying a piece of cast iron plate alongside. Wasn't sure exactly what he meant until I came upon the first one. Appeared to be pieces of cast iron stove plate that he must have come across some place. First one I found was fair sized, dinner plate sized? But as he went along he must of realized he was going to run out of iron, and the pieces got smaller and smaller, the last one I found was about the size of a sivler dollar. After that he no longer had anything but the marked stone (ones I found were about softball size or smaller.
Also spent time looking for corners that were buffalo skulls, or other types of bone. Found one I was sure of, the rest were less sure.
Remember looking for one corner and reading the notes and realized I was there 100 years to the day from when the original corner was set. It was an interesting project.
Retracement of original corners was always was the most interesting part of surveying to me.
The old surveyor called for a harrow tooth in the center of the road in the 1800's. Thank God that by the time I showed up the road had shifted so it was off to one side - otherwise I would have gotten run over. It was the complete length of my arm deep and I was scraping out just tiny bits of dirt and gravel but it was still there and it clinched the survey we were trying so hard to solve.
Was doing a job for a young fellow whose father-in-law was a County Commissioner in the same county as the project. The Commissioner showed up just to watch. Had a County road grader assisting in finding the stone that was supposed to be present. Decided to widen out our search by expanding the hole to be about 20 or more feet in all directions from the center. BAM There it is, precisely as described, laying flat on its side with an "X" marking the true corner. The soil was too shallow to allow the stone to be set put upright as usual. Made a believer out of the Commissioner. Never had a problem getting assistance from that County to dig for stones.
Every corner I did not have to put our rebar and cap at !
