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Our aliquots don't move…
A lookout and radio repeater site on top of a mountain consists of four 5 acre aliquots (nominally 330′ east-west by 660′ north-south, the center quarter section corner is the common corner, plus two 2.5 acre aliquots (nominally 330×330) acquired from the railroad in 1935 (railroad grant). This is in Section 27.
Surveyor Charles O. Walker, LS2877, whom I have found to be a very good surveyor the few times I have followed him, surveyed Section 27 in 1956 and set monuments around the lookout property. Then in 1960 he surveyed it again, he determined some of the corners he used in 1956 were incorrect so he moved his monuments to the correct positions of the aliquot corners (we have the field notes). He found 3 section corners and one quarter section corner; he reeestablished the southeast corner of Section 27 by single proportion for easting and by GLO distance call to ravine northing. This is at least partially supported by California Supreme Court opinions which state approximate positions from topo calls is better than proportioning. He single proportioned the three missing quarter section corners.
There is National Forest lands touching some of the Section boundaries (but not our aliquots which is all surrounded by a private timber company, the successor in interest of the railroad). The BLM did a dependent resurvey of Section 27 (and others) in 1984 and accepted all of the corners of local control except Walker’s southeast corner (and the quarter between 26 and 27 which is dependent on it) saying Walker used improper procedure. I don’t agree with this; I believe Walker used the best evidence available to restore the corner. Nonetheless BLM double proportioned the southeast corner of Section 27 and re-single proportioned the east quarter section corner north of it. We don’t have a direct beef with them over this because their Forest boundary does not touch our lookout site boundary.
Theoretically, this shoves our aliquots 42′ north (and possible makes them slightly smaller). My opinion is that our corners were established and set by Walker using proper and reasonable procedure in 1960 (56 years ago) and they are the established corners of our property. There is a note in the file wherein one of my predecessors talked with the private timber company and they agreed the existing monuments are the corners and mark the boundaries. I have personally talked to Forestry company managers who say in a panicked voice, “you aren’t going to move all those corners, are you?” referring to monuments set by my department over 50 years ago which have been in use as the boundaries ever since. Apparently surveyors don’t have the best reputation in some circles.
If BLM thinks their boundary corner remote from our property is in a different place then more power to them but our monuments stay. They are all right where Walker said he set them, I mean amazingly close for the transit tape era in rough forest terrain; a couple of tenths per mile.
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