1857 GLO Township Corner

How deep was that under the road? And how in the he// you make such a small hole and find it? I always miss it by feet!!!

One more for JP and his crew. Good work gents.

The backwards "N" is interesting...

But what will the surveyor that digs it up again 200 years from now think about the duct tape and gorilla glue?! 😉

It was about 3.5' deep. Get under the road crust and start probing. Amazing that these stones are still there 158 years later, but then again I never assume they are gone either. This same surveyor always had his "N" backwards on the township corners.

Very nice :good:

> This same surveyor always had his "N" backwards on the township corners.

That's very interesting.

One could logically assume there are two possibilities: The surveyor always marked his own monuments or...he instructed his men to always make the "N" backward.

Every time JP posts pics of his escapades I think I need to get out more often....

PS - Actually I think the T is also backwards....:pinch:

:good:

The 8's are upside down as well.

> The 8's are upside down as well.

Good eye! I missed that..

Amazing.
At that depth, would that be its original depth or has the land been built up since?
If buried, then I assume something else also marked the corner above the stone.

"But what will the surveyor that digs it up again 200 years from now think about the duct tape and gorilla glue?!"

Probably think that MacGuyver was there. 😉

Another great find. Thanks for the pictures.

Every time he post pics of his field adventures it makes me want to shred my license and find another job. I'm so ashamed that I'm not that good.

Don't put yourself down Allen - it ain't that big a deal. I'm just an old country M&B surveyor, but did go out with an Indiana crew one time to find a section corer. We found it so my record with section corners is 100%. So based on my experience, you just go out and dig them up. Here's a link to the story I posted about the adventure shortly after this site came on line.

Needless to say - this is sarcasm. 🙂 Jerry always does good work.

http://beerleg.com/index.php?mode=thread&id=1715

Backwards "N"

The same guy on Jones's crew made backwards N's on other township corners that I have found from 1857. I think his name was William Moore since he is listed as the axeman and there were no trees here. Below is the township corner to T6-7N R5-6E by the same crew.

Another dandy preservation effort. Good job Jerry!

I never really thought much about using a probe until I started reading your stories and in most of them, the word 'probe' is mentioned. I made my own probe last fall and used it - and 15 minutes of my time - to find a stone from an 1878 subdivision. A stone that I believe nobody looked for because they just assumed it couldn't have survived two sidewalk rebuild projects. I wouldn't have found it without a probe.

My favorite digging tool however, when the search area can't be pinned down, is a backhoe. 🙂

Probes

I have used a lot of homemade probes that bent and caused a lot of frustration trying to get through hard soil. Nothing works like the probes from T&T Tools. I use a "Smart Stick" for my personal projects and at work we have four "Mighty Probes". They have 4' extensions. I don't openly advertise a lot of products, but these are well worth the money and I doubt you'll ever need to replace it.

http://www.mightyprobe.com/

Backwards "4"

Same guy on a township line further north.

Backwards "4"

you know you have a good corner when you find a backwards 4. Who would fake that;-)

Probes

A couple of things you have going for you that we don't in Illinois.

First off, the original monuments were almost always a post in a sod mound. I've never seen one. There are a lot of stones set by the county surveyors, but they are usually unmarked.

Second, in the part of Illinois I work about the nearest you can locate any missing corner is about a circle of 30 feet diameter. Usually its just to big of an area to do any kind of detailed search.

I'm curious how long it took you to dig that corner up and rehab it once you knew where to look?