Probably the most interesting thing I saw today is this spot where there are no fewer than three survey markers within about four feet of each other.
Looking West
The three are:
- a Cedar Stake in a Rock Mound,
- a #3 Rebar North of the Cedar Stake, and
- a #4 Rebar by the base of the fence corner (with two cedar bearing trees marked "X" with a chain saw).
The Cedar Stake and Rock Mound was placed in May, 1949 by a fellow named T.A. Breeze. One of the large flags in the mound had a steel beer can under it with the puncture marks of a church key.
The #3 Rebar North of the Cedar Stake was probably placed in 1971.
The #4 Rebar by the fence corner post was probably set in 1991.
So, about every 20 years or so, another marker has arrived at that corner!
So where does yours go?
Finding a pin cushion certainly isn't out of the ordinary for me!
I assume they all purport to be property corners (as in same point) and not references.
How do you explain that to possibly 4 different owners at a 4 way join of titles/ deeds?
Probably doesn't do much for the professionalism of the profession in the eyes of the public?
> Finding a pin cushion certainly isn't out of the ordinary for me!
The unusual thing about that corner is that in 1949 a surveyor was building stake and mound corners along the right-of-way of a State highway. The stake is a roughly 2" x 24" piece of cedar cut somewhere in the vicinity, I'm sure.
As for where my rod and cap marker will go, it depends upon whether any of the markers have correctly located the right-of-way line. At this point, I'd wager not.
> I assume they all purport to be property corners (as in same point) and not references.
Yes, they all supposedly mark where a prolongation of a land grant line intersects the right-of-way line of a State highway. The cedar stake and rock mound corner placed in 1949 is merely mentioned in an affidavit of record, not in a conveyance. It appears to me that the #3 rebar North of the cedar stake was probably placed on the prolongation of a line run through the cedar stake to intersect where that surveyor thought the right-of-way line to be.
> How do you explain that to possibly 4 different owners at a 4 way join of titles/ deeds?
Fortunately, there are only two private land owners and they are already embroiled in a boundary dispute that will most likely be resolved by a written agreement of some sort. So this problem will get solved, I expect.
> Probably doesn't do much for the professionalism of the profession in the eyes of the public?
Well, the 1949 surveyor, T.A. Breeze, who was also County Surveyor for years, never made a survey correctly in his entire career, as far as I know. Everything I've seen of his work has been a mess in some significant way. I think it's probably an even money bet that the steel beer can under one of the rocks in the mound was his or belonged to a member of his survey party.
"Everything I've seen of his work has been a mess in some significant way. I think it's probably an even money bet that the steel beer can under one of the rocks in the mound was his or belonged to a member of his survey party."
Mm. We have one of 'those' here. You wander out to a survey by XXX knowing the chances of finding anything or making things fit the cadaster is dubious.
On the beer can matter. There's a record of a survey party surveying town blocks here and there was a beer party organised on the street for the crew.
Just consider it the largest TxDOT marker you've ever found. I'm sure you can handle it!
>We have one of 'those' here. You wander out to a survey by XXX knowing the chances of finding anything or making things fit the cadaster is dubious.
This particular fellow, T.A. Breeze, was an unsual case. He came back from WWII with a severe case of what was then known as "shell shock" and set about medicating himself with drink. He died in a car wreck more than fifty years ago, so there's no harm in providing the colorful details I've heard from his clients and employees over the years. One fellow got a call one evening from a person concerned that Mr. Breeze had never made it home and asking whether something might have happened to him at the ranch he was surveying (not the one I'm dealing with at the moment). A drive through the pastures found Breeze sitting under a tree with a bottle of wine, completely gassed.
A fellow who actually worked for Breeze told me that it was standard practice to go to Mr. Breeze's house in the morning and to get the assignment for the day while he was still laid up in bed.
Breeze's surveys seem to fall into a couple of patterns, but generally seem to have a couple of characteristics in common. The first is that while he nearly universally called for having set either a stake (meaning a cedar stake) or an iron pipe, as far as I know, virtually every one of those "iron pipes" is actually a piece of rebar.
One of the corners I'm dealing with was tied by Mr. Breeze on four different occasions with wildly different results that suggested he hadn't even examined the record of his earlier work.
> Just consider it the largest TxDOT marker you've ever found. I'm sure you can handle it!
No, the actual right-of-way line is very well marked. There isn't much doubt about how to locate the line. The question is whether any of the three markers are very close to the line at all and at this point it looks as if possibly none are.
The mound with the beer can in place under the stone
Same can removed for photograph
The ones I find amusing are where there are clear ROW markers (if you look along the ROW fence) but the surveyor doesn't see the need (or doesn't know) that there was a ROW taking (or reservation from day one). The client deed has never been changed to reflect the taking but usually has a LESS x.xx acres in state highway). So there are ROW maps and a deed to UDOT (if you look). So like the rest of the deed they stake it from the deed. So they blow off all the other evidence (except for the metes in the deed) and just mark it in state ROW. The worst one (from my view) had markers on the other side of the road outside of the ROW. I pointed it out to the title and mortgage folks making a loan for the sale and they basically just told me I didn't know what I was talking about (didn't I read the title report – no problems). I wonder if UDOT will buckle under if the mortgage goes bad and give up the highway. How or why a surveyor would stake across a state road is beyond me (this road dates back to the 1860's – has been open to travel since then). This surveyor showed the road in the field beyond the actual road. I don't know whether he flew in or not, the easy way to get there is driving the road. The UDOT maps date in the 1940's.
Most folks won't admit to drinking in Utah! Maybe LSD was in the mix.
> The ones I find amusing are where there are clear ROW markers (if you look along the ROW fence) but the surveyor doesn't see the need (or doesn't know) that there was a ROW taking (or reservation from day one).
In this case, the land used as the State highway was conveyed to the State of Texas in fee simple by a deed of record. The official right-of-way map of the highway lists all of the deeds by which the lands and any associated easements were acquired and can be downloaded from the internet for free. So, right now there isn't any excuse for a Texas surveyor not to locate the boundary of the land owned by the State.
The fact that it's not all online for free isn't an excuse to not get the data. Never was. If you call UDOT and talk to the right person (region surveyor for me) they will send it to you.
>If you call UDOT and talk to the right person (region surveyor for me) they will send it to you.
I don't think it's possible the the Utah DOT has ANY of the official right-of-way maps for the Texas districts. I'm going to have to say you're completely mistaken on that point.
Well OK, you as in a you in Utah. Also, I'm not in need of any TxDot maps even for free on line. Utah has most of it online if you are a UDOT contractor and have a ProjectWise account with them (I don't). The region surveyor is real good to get me what I need.
