We rehabbed this stone earlier this month. Its “provenance” was impeccable, except for a 1991 glitch where a surveyor pulled distances from incorrect 1967 BT calls and determined the 1869 stone was off by 0.6’ and set a PK at his location of the 1/4 corner (no one else ever used the PK in the intervening years because it was just silly to do so):
1869 GLO plat with corner circled in red:
1869 GLO notes. No accessories set at this corner. Since the east side of the Cascades was low rent soil and only considered by the authorities as fit for cattle and Indians, many sectional subdivisions only had 1 BT set at section corners and none at 1/4s. Additionally, standard parallels were run every 30 miles here as opposed to every 24 in the more valuable Willamette Valley subdivisions:
In 1910 the McGilvray Road was laid out and this 1/4 was called out as a C/L point on the road:
1910 notes
1910 map
2012- Stone in situ
The “R” (for “Road”) chiseled on top of stone in 1910 (the 1910 notes don't state they carved an "R" on top, but experience has shown that was the standard practice at the time) and the 1991 PK set in 1991. An “X” was also chiseled on the “R” at a later date by a surveyor who tied the stone:
When we extracted the stone we found the 1869 1/4 carved on the south side:
1869 1/4 and 1910 "R" high-lighted in yellow keel:
Wow Mike, that's pretty cool. Can I assume that when re-habed the "X" is what you held? Did you re-bury it deeper and set a monument at grade?
Don- yes, we tied the center punch on the X. Measurements to surrounding corners 1/2 mile north, east and south were within 0.05' or so of recent measurements as everyone else has apparently used the X. We are setting a pipe in a cast iron monument well about 1.5 feet below grade once the fence is moved (it's 20 feet into the road right-of-way) and the dirt road is re-graded. The restoration record will state that the stone is being retained at the County Surveyor's Office for educational and display purposes. It's nice to have some of these unique hands-on relics available as they become scarcer.
> Its “provenance” was impeccable, except for a 1991 glitch where a surveyor pulled distances from incorrect 1967 BT calls and determined the 1869 stone was off by 0.6’ and set a PK at his location of the 1/4 corner (no one else ever used the PK in the intervening years because it was just silly to do so).
Okay, maybe I'm not following you, Mike. You looked for some old "original" stone when you had a good ole fence corner right in front of you, ready for a few wraps of flagging?
:-/
That stone is really nice. From 1869 no less!
I'm trying to get my head around setting that lame PK nail up agaisnt a fence post for a 1/4 corner. In 1991? Is that SOP around there? What a terrible monument.
The 1/4 was on the south face?
I will usually see them on the north (east west line) and west (north south line) faces, but there a few townships I've been in where the 1/4 stones were set perpendicular to line. Can't remember where those were marked.
I'd be concerned about the 1/4 on the south face. Brings up the possibility that the stone has been dug up and moved around. Did they put it back in the same hole or move it to the side? There probably is no way to know unless there is a survey record where they tell you. It's still the best evidence you have though. I've found several stones loose to the side of a corner post. Most likely they dug up the stone and placed the post in the same location, but, you don't know for sure. Your own judgment is all you have many times after you exhaust all of the other evidence you may locate.
> I'd be concerned about the 1/4 on the south face. Brings up the possibility that the stone has been dug up and moved around. Did they put it back in the same hole or move it to the side? There probably is no way to know unless there is a survey record where they tell you. It's still the best evidence you have though. I've found several stones loose to the side of a corner post. Most likely they dug up the stone and placed the post in the same location, but, you don't know for sure. Your own judgment is all you have many times after you exhaust all of the other evidence you may locate.
I've seen stones pulled for setting a fence post in the hole, then the stone partly buried alongside with the scribing on the wrong side to let you know they did that. Hard to prove without a record of it though.
Leon – The 1/4 on the south gave me pause to, but the GLO weren’t always very consistent in Central Oregon. However I don’t believe the GLO is the culprit here, I think the 1910 surveyors monkeyed around with it bit. The stone still matches two 1967 BTs (the first record of BTs being marked for this corner is in 1967 which appears to be prior to the fence being built) so it has been consistent for 45 years and... my suspicion is that in 1910 the "1/4" was sticking up out of the ground pyramid-style like they usually are. When the marker on the 1910 crew went to carve the R he rolled it around till he found a good face to do his art work on (it’s a substantial “R”), chiseled the R, and then they set it back in place (with the R facing up now) and set it deeper than they found it so the rock wouldn’t be a bump in the new road.
Mighty Moe - Regarding the 1991 PK and the fence –in 1982 a surveyor held the stone but also found a 5/8 rebar “alongside of the stone”. It’s not there now so I think that’s what the fence builder used – and destroyed - the rouge pre 1982 rebar. A 1993 note on a county GPS data sheet indicates the 1991 surveyor pulled “the wrong distances” to set the PK in the fence post. We appear to have substantiated that claim because:
The 1967 20d spikes we found side-center in the BTs match the 1967 distances to the stone. The two BTS are NW and NE of the stone.
The same two trees have 1991 face-center PKs and washers with the 1991 surveyors LS# on the washers. They match the PK in the fence post using the 1967 record distances.
So it appears that Mr. 1991 measured record from the face of the trees to determine the stone was off (and didn’t see the 20d spikes on the sides, sticking out as obvious as the bolts on Frankenstein’s neck ), then drove PKs with his washers into the faces, set his PK 1/4 corner and called everyone off. Pulling the record distances from the south faces of two 12 to 18” Dia. trees north of the corner instead of from the original nails in the sides of the trees is almost guaranteed to move your position a half foot south every time. Funny thing is, this guy also did some very good work. You just never know with his work how goofy it’s going to be until you wade into it.
That is the judgement factor and I'd say you applied it very well.
