Here's a Corner of Section 37 (also of Lot 3, Section 35) that we recovered two weeks ago.
The stone is nearly 3 feet long, and was found "leaning over" (butter side down) onto the Mound of Stone alongside. Here's a closeup view of the scribing:
It says;
1/2 M
J.B.G.
Which translates to 1/2 Mile Stone (and Angle Point) of the James B. Gordon Private Land Claim (aka Section 37), and was set by Andrew J. Stewart on September 5th. 1896.
The corner is within the construction prism of a new access road, so we were REAL happy to get it recovered, tied, georeferenced, and ready for a Witness Corner (once they are done bulldozing the area).
We looked for 10 of these stones that day, and found 8 of them! Oh yeah, it was a GOOD day, EXCEPT for the Oak Brush, snow covered wet leaves, and STEEP (REALLY STEEP) terrian.
Loyal
Nice find and photos Loyal! What type of stone is that?
Section 37
It's a fairly hard piece of Quartzite that is common to the Oquirrh Mountains. Holds good markings pretty much forever. There were also Limestones and Sandstones used by Stewart, and they are pretty good too, but NOT as nice as the Quartzites.
Loyal
Section 37
Good Job Loyal!
It's jobs similar to yours that make me think, "... and they pay me for this!?"
Keep up the good work, and the great photos.
Scott
Very Cool!
Can you post a copy of the plat?
I like to show folks examples of Townships that are a bit unusual... many can't believe there was anything ever surveyed by the GLO that was not 80 chains on a side and square.
:good:
You're not seriously going to hold those stones are you? I guarantee you those "1/2 miles stones" are not at 2640', nor even on a straight line!!!!!
I'll be expecting to see nice shiny new capped rebars the next time I swing through there...
Seriously though - very nice find(s).
> You're not seriously going to hold those stones are you? I guarantee you those "1/2 miles stones" are not at 2640', nor even on a straight line!!!!!
>
> I'll be expecting to see nice shiny new capped rebars the next time I swing through there...
>
>
>
> Seriously though - very nice find(s).
If they are on the E-W section lines they had better NOT be on a straight line. Everyone knows E-W lines are curves.:-)
...8/10 stones is a VERY good day indeed. Love the scribing. It's huge compared to what I find here in the North Cascades and very readable.
Doug
Peter
I am scrambling to get some coordinate estimates ready for ANOTHER Private Land Claim (Section 38, different Township), where we are headed tomorrow. Here is a "snapshot" of Stewart's Plat (area of interest only), for that baby:
We hope to find 7 or 8 stone corners tomorrow, 3 of which are along the South Line of Section 38. Incidentely, the Southwest Corner of Section 38, is ALSO the 1/4 corner between Sections 17 & 20, set by Adolph Jessen in 1879, and recovered by Stewart in 1896 (same-o the Northeast of 20, which is the one we are MOST CONCERNED about tomorrow).
Loyal
Peter
:good:
Section 37
>
> It's jobs similar to yours that make me think, "... and they pay me for this!?"
Yeah, but not much! 🙂
That's a nice one!
Seems to me that by the 1890's they were doing much better using good stones and marking them. Maybe they were into a second generation of surveyors that had had problems with identification (sort of like us these days) and so were more determined to use good stones and mark them properly.
I've only retraced Stewart on one survey but the stones found were marked very well.
You read the notes from 1870 forward and find that they had problems finding the wood posts set in 1855-56. At this date I've never seen one (wood post) that could be identified (other than in a display case at BLM), although Loyal showed us some bug dust in a rock pile probably from one a few years ago.
