An interesting and unusual comment from the body of the Field Notes concerning a GLO Dependent Resurvey of a Township in Utah:
"No evidence of Hanson surveys on the N. bdy. of sec. 22 can be found and his reported closings upon former surveys in this vicinity are NOTORIOUSLY FICTITIOUS. (emphasis mine).
It should be noted that A.P. Hanson performed quite a few GLO Contract surveys in Utah around the end of the 19th Century, and has a very poor reputation.
Over the years I have dealt with quite a few of Hanson's "surveys," and I have found Miller's (the GLO Surveyor who wrote the above note) comments to representative of far too many of Hanson's surveys.
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Alonzo Gesner was a GLO surveyor in these parts. A guy I know who retraced a lot of his work called him Alonzo GUESSER. After figuring out that 1/4 corners on east/west lines set by Guesser were stubbed in it became easier to guess: Search 40 chains +/- from one or the other bracketing section corners. Not midway as stated in the (pencil whipped) notes.
I have encountered several "herring-bone" townships over the years. All but one were North-South Section lines w/ the East/West ?¬ Corners stubbed in. The other one had the East-West Lines run, and the North/South ?¬ Corners stubbed in. It took a while to figure out what the hell was going on, but once we did, we found ALL of the N/S ?¬ Corners (not even close to the mid-points).?ÿ
A.P. showed up in these parts, however, he was in a battle to figure out which one was worse between him and a couple of "brothers" surveying in the area. Even his plats have some glaring errors.?ÿ
I just got a retracement request from a local and the name John Gonin showed up as the surveyor. When I see that name I know I'm good. Makes it easy to estimate cause everything you look for he set you seem to find and it's all very close to record.
Much later than this original he was doing some resurveys and again it's almost perfect. His retracement is near a later era surveyor that did a township resurvey near to the Gonin one. Each time that guy's name pops up as the surveyor I know I've got issues before even showing up in the field.?ÿ
oops
Twice I have tried to show the herringbone section lines west of Mound Valley, KS and failed.?ÿ Good thing I'm not making any critical decisions right now.
You want a tale of massive GLO surveying fraud look up Benson Syndicate.
You want a tale of massive GLO surveying fraud look up Benson Syndicate.
A.P. Hanson (pretty sure it's the same guy) shows up on the list of John A. Benson's "associates" in the General Land Office Report concerning the Benson Syndicate. I have had the DISpleasure of dealing with several surveys performed by various members of the Syndicate. NO FUN AT ALL!?ÿ?ÿ
Most of the awful surveys come from the same period 1880-1884. One of the predominate local surveyors was said to have had connections to the Benson Syndicate, but I don't think that's so. He set many monuments but often he didn't mark them, set so many in mounds and probably skipped some areas. Some of the notes in that era would show a township monumented in three days, one such is Dec20-22, the three shortest days of the year. Not much has ever been found in that township. A dollar per corner didn't leave much meat on the bone for the crews.?ÿ
You want a tale of massive GLO surveying fraud look up Benson Syndicate.
Wow!?ÿ Thanks for that!?ÿ Fascinating.
@mightymoe I don't think the time frame is an?ÿ indicator of?ÿ a problem. Some of the best 19'th century surveyors also reported taking a couple of days to complete a township.?ÿ
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@mightymoe I don't think the time frame is an?ÿ indicator of?ÿ a problem. Some of the best 19'th century surveyors also reported taking a couple of days to complete a township.?ÿ
I've found folks confused by what 19th century means but I take it as 1800-1899.?ÿ That being said given the technology in the 1800's to survey and monument an entire township in two days seems impossible.?ÿ To survey and set 36 Section corners and 4 times that for the quarter corners by the Survey Manual technique involves a hundred miles+ of traversing line, calculation and monument construction, not a two day campaign.
OTOH I've retraced 19th century GLO townships where they skimped but actually set monuments sporadically and the monuments held for modern further breakdowns.?ÿ Yah, it's a mess but you gotta honor bona fide original GLO monuments of record.
@mike-marks You seem to have correctly identified the 19th century.
The contracted "surveyors"?ÿ often never set foot in the township. They had huge crews. Some of the lists are pages long. They also didn't have to do any searching. It was measure, mark and move on. The crews would have one person who did nothing but mark stones (or dig pits, or set posts...). A few people to cut line for each chain crew. A couple of cooks....
I can recovered enough originals in these "to fast" townships within a link or two of record to respect their work. Some of those originals took longer to find than the original survey of the whole township took.?ÿ
Some names are common throughout California?ÿ
Norway
Minto
P.Y. Baker
I.N. Chapman
Some townships are terrible, others are really good. Same deputy. I think it depended on who really did the work (names lost to history).
Also if there were already settlers in the area then the work often would be better. Out in the wilderness, not so good. Can??t really blame them for not running lines over 11,000 foot peaks, an insane task.
You want a tale of massive GLO surveying fraud look up Benson Syndicate.
FTW!!!?!?!??!?
WOW!!!!!
That explains a lot about why people don't want surveys I imagine.?ÿ WOW!
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