A what?

Never heard of such a thing.  I assume they mean railroad tie, so maybe it was simply a fence post that pre-dated the road.

It has to be a railroad spike, some crazy autocorrect, and piss poor quality assurance review.

                       @gary_g

So a 275 year-old British surveyor did this??????????

I guess. LOL !

I have seen plank road mentioned in deeds and some road name actually called plank road, or the old plank road. They were actually wood planks instead of just dirt.

@gary_g 

A plank road sounds similar to a corduroy road which I understand is basically logs laid side by side for miles  When Missouri became a State in 1821, that fixed the western line of civilization versus a vast expanse of wide open land.  The border required military protection so Fort Leavenworth in the future Kansas and Fort Gibson in the future Oklahoma required a connecting road after their construction around 1824-1827.  Fort Scott in the future Kansas was added in the late 1830's approximately midway along that route.  The Military Road, as it was called, was said to be a corduroy road.  There had to be many places along that line where trees/logs would have had to be hauled in for miles to have enough  Wild native grasses said to be as high as the eye of a rider on horseback were dominant and commonplace, with regular prairie fires destroying small trees.  I cannot imagine just how miserable a trip that had to be for man and beast.

https://www.carolana.com/NC/Transportation/roads/nc_plank_roads.html

@mathteacher 

Thank you.  That is amazing.  I wonder how long the planks were.  Each one could be quite heavy.

Seeing the term "plank" takes me back to my childhood.  In my youngest years, the road in front of our house was a typical, for here, county road with river gravel used as the driving surface.  Being near the crest of a hill, the road ditch was possibly only a foot to eighteen inches deep.  There was a bridge plank placed across the ditch to access our mail box on rainy days.  It was possibly 16 feet long, three inches thick and 12 to 15 inches in width.  I spent many minutes waiting for my school bus to arrive and jumping up and down on the center of the plank.  It didn't flex very much, but, enough to make me think I was a big kid.

I can relate. A bit off the track, commercials on Saturday morning tv often said, "Be the first on your block to...." I lived on a road and spent hours trying to figure out where my block began and ended. TV marketing was designed for city folks.

@mathteacher     Yep. For city kids and really dumb ones at that. There came a time when a spy or two became the focus of most cartoons, movies and TV shows.  One gadget promoted on Saturday morning had this little song go with it, "Six finger, six finger, man alive, how did I ever get along with five."  If you gripped it in your right hand, it looked a bit like an extra figure but was really some sort of spy gadget or gun or something.  I did not want that type of crap.

Posted by: @gary_g

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I guess. LOL !

I have seen plank road mentioned in deeds and some road name actually called plank road, or the old plank road. They were actually wood planks instead of just dirt.

Found the deed I was thinking about !

This is a conveyance from a turnpike company to the State Roads Commission. Also give the back reference when the Turnpke was created.