OK, let me clear this topic up a bit (I hope). BLM doesn't set double monuments at a found original corner. I'll explain. First I must say if you are only retreiving our plats and not the field notes that go along with them then you are only getting half of the information. When we are surveying and we locate a varifiable original corner (stone, wood post, dirt mound, etc.) our surveyors are instructed to reference the original position, replace that location with a durable, long lasting, approved metal monument. They are also instructed to bury the original alongside our newer monument. That newer monument is now at the original position and should be considered THE position thence forward. In the case of finding a private monument that we are accepting as an original perpetuation, our surveyors are instructed that if the monument is not substantial, meaning just a PK nail, plain rebar or the like, we are to accept it, reference the position, and reset a MORE substantial monument at the corner point. We leave the private monument alongside and note our field record. If it is a substantial private monument we will leave it alone and note our field record that it is acceptable and fully describe the monument in our record. The point here is our field notes along with the plat are very important for your research and should explain clearly what we have done. If they don't we are doing something wrong and I want to hear about it. I hope this helped explain the issue.
It's easy to throw rocks at a big organization but overall BLM does a good job and they set real monuments. Any agency with multiple offices covering large geographical areas will have variations in practice because of the nature of people.
In most cases of rural acreage under a link is not a real problem to anyone but Surveyors.
I have found things done by my predecessors that maybe could've been done better or differently but I can't go back in a time machine and fix it.
Agencies that have been operating for a long time (well over a century in the case of BLM and its predecessor agency, the GLO) will have things that happened long before we were all born that we wish was different but we can't change it, it is what it is.
Thanks Lance for your explanation!
I know that your explanation is the general policy of BLM (at least when I was still there) and as you say, the field notes are an integral part of the BLM survey/resurvey product.
Unfortunately, the example as shown above with the 1977 BLM iron post alongside an existing private survey monument, happens for whatever reason and is not the practice of BLM now. (It was not the practice in 1977 either)
Keith
it wasn't on the curve
lol
