Holy Cow, post: 379982, member: 50 wrote: The vast majority of patents issued in our area from Uncle Sam were standard quarter sections. The entrymen had reasons to construct fences along the apparent quarter section lines despite an absence of center corners. Many early settlers planted hedge/osage orange/bois d'arc trees along the apparent boundaries. This is an area of mixed cropland,pastureland and native grass meadows. Fencing was a necessity from the start in most sections.
What Holy said!
There are many areas in the Valleys of Utah in which the settlers pre-dated the GLO Original Surveys (sometimes by decades). If ANYBODY ever KNEW (with any certainty) where those 1855/6 wood post Section and å? Section Corners WHERE, it was the folks who got aliquot part Patents in those Sections as soon as the Land Office opened in 1869.
Obviously the "hand hewn cottonwood posts" (weenie roasting sticks) set by the Original GLO Surveyors, were replaced by Juniper Corner Posts during the "proving up" of the Homestead Entries. Good fences make good neighbors, and in many cases adjoining claimants worked together building fences.
Fast forward 140 years, and in MANY cases, those old fence corners ARE the BEST available evidence of the position of the Original Corners. Not ALWAYS, but nothing is absolute in EVERY case.
Loyal
Interesting section corner in the area is a corner with two monuments, ,,
A fence corner with a pipe alongside and the original marked stone lying loose 20 feet from the fence pipe
