I encountered a pair of 6"x6" sandstone monuments recently. Since I've never encountered any of these before, they've become a curiosity to me. Why use sandstone instead of concrete? Were they used because of their permeability to water? Also, the property corner monument is about a foot underground, and its witness (?) is approximately 60.0' (taped) away. The latter is above ground, just like those old SRD (mower's) monuments. Was it a standard practice to set witnesses to important corners?
Yes, it is standard practice to "witness" a monument. Sandstone and not concrete because surveyors don't carry around bags of concrete.
It could be underground just becasue of its age,?ÿ or becasue whoever set it wanted to protect it from?ÿ surface activity.?ÿ