It's been a while since I posted photos of a stone recovery, so here is one that the crew recovered this morning. The asphalt road is scheduled for milling and repaving, so now was the right time to bust through the asphalt to see if the stone was still there and to clean up the record for monumentation at this location.
The stone was set on June 24, 1857. It is at the NE Corner of Section 31, T7N, R5E of 6PM in Lancaster County, Nebraska.
I was gonna say it's been a while since we had a "JP dug 'nuthern up" fix.
As usual you did what appears to be a bang-up. Do you ever toss something in the hole monumenting your recovery? Or are you depending entirely on filed recovery notes for the next crew?
My it looks awful green for July. A lot of rain up there, too?
How come we don't ever have any Jerry Penry stones in California?
Sometimes I'll put a little bottle with a note or modern coins in them back down with the stone. One time I folded up the front page of the newspaper for that day and stuck it in a bottle.
We have had nice consistent rains this year. Monday and Tuesday reached 100°, so summer is upon us. Today was back down in the 80's.
Its nice seeing the photos. The part of Illinois I work in was surveyed around 1816 and every original was always called out as a post in a sod mound. I always figured it was more of a stick in a pile of dirt.
Do we have any stone monuments left in CA? 😉
You need to get out of L.A. more often.
I enjoy the pic's showing a big effort in recovery and possible remonumentation of the monument and the sanctity of an original monument. What I really question is:
How do you know if the monument is moved from the original record? What do you do when there are discrepancies in the record? Trying to place the original monument EXACTLY back in it's original position is nice but I think impossible once removed. I don't see any reference P.K's in the asphalt before removal of the monument, I'm sure you do set them right? Just curious on the extent of effort to set the monument back EXACTLY on the corner point.
Pablo B-)
There is a lot going on with these remonumentation projects that I don't always state. First, the records are thoroughly researched so we know what we are going after. I think I have once pulled out 8 different monuments from one hole before. Short pipes, rebars, etc. Before digging, there are reference tie nails always placed a short distance from the hole. Everything is recorded as it comes out of the hole. The stones are often very hard to get out, but we have developed a lot of techniques to extract them. The stones are then cleaned, measured, repaired if necessary, and photographed. An iron monument then goes down into the bottom of the hole. Then the stone is placed exactly over the iron. The reference nails ensure everything is in line and plumb bobs are used. Then some sort of mark is made on the top of the stone. Usually a MAG nail is drilled into the top. Then a third monument is placed over the nail in the stone. Everything is well packed as the hole gets refilled. Then an aluminum identification cap is placed on the top monument. Then if in asphalt, we pack cold patch to repair the hole. A 4" diameter piece of iron pipe is sleeved around the monument at the surface. In the city we will drill a 7" core and place a monument well with lid. All this gets recorded and filed as record.
Are these stones exactly where they were placed by the GLO surveyors in 1857? The short answer is "No". The terrain at this location and many others are often pretty close to the surroundings meaning they once had their top 1/3 of the stone exposed out there on the wide-open prairie. As roads were built, the workers found these stones and buried them deeper. They probably did not reference them first, but just dropped them in the hole to protect them. This is why I have often found them rotated, upside down, or on their sides three or four feet deep.
We honor the location where the stone was found if upright. If on its side, we will honor the position of the oldest iron monument that is above it and reset the stone in that location. If no other monument is above the stone and it is on its side, then it is a judgment call as to where on the stone we will call the "center". Tie that point out, remove the stone and reset it upright at the "center" location.
WOW!:-) That is the definition of professionalism, remonumentation and documentation. I don't like the idea that you may have more pictures of original stones than I do. :-@
Pablo B-)
> You need to get out of L.A. more often.
Wait! There's more in CA than just LA?
How deep was it? It looks to way down in that hole.
When do you think it was last seen by someone?
This one was right at 4' deep. The last time it was mentioned was in 1931 when the surveyor said "found marked stone".
My question is how do you know where to dig? This one you must have had detailed records and history for.
But some of the pics you've put up, it's off to the side of the road, off centerline, or whatever. You can't be just digging at random?
In eastern ND, I can count on one had the number of corner records I've seen that actually reference finding the original monument. So other than just assuming it's in the direct centerline of a road intersection (which is what is at 80% of the corners here), I don't know how I'd even go about narrowing it down.
Fortunately, the County I work has all of the records back to the early 1870's. There is usually a record where someone had used the corner. They started placing iron next to the stones as early as 1900 and started placing iron over the stones in the 1920's. So, in most cases it is just matter of digging where there is an existing monument. The fun ones, however, are those that are just stones and you have to bring in measurements, probe, and dig to find them. My philosophy on stones is that they just don't disappear, so they have to be somewhere. Not finding one means I didn't look in the right location. It might have been carried off, drug out by the grader and is 50 yards down the road, or in a ravine, or in a pile of field stones. It is somewhere and that's what keeps me searching.
That would be nice to have access to that kind of history. For me, I would just have to dig down and assume it's in the exact center of the intersection. I wouldn't mind putting that kind of effort, but in most cases I don't even have an educated guess to go off.
