Items buried with stones

I grew up drinking that stuff

Burying glass or some other man made object with a set stone is not uncommon - especially in areas that are rocky to begin with. It's a way to distinguish "the stone" from all the others. And, yes, I have seen it.

A while back I found a few ox bones (big ones) buried over a reference iron rod about 300mm below the ground.
Only way for that combination was for it to be deliberately placed.

I've am old chainsaw bar that I've ready to bury along with the reference when I find an appropriate place.
Like to be around when that gets found again.
It will add to the metal so should set any detector buzzing madly.

Not exactly a memorial as you are describing but years ago in the San Luis valley of Colorado While searching for a section corner described as a "Post w MS, I found a small smooth river rock type stone about the size of a grapefruit with "M S" carefully scribed into it. Only Marked Stone I ever found that I was sure of.

I have found broken glass/plates/bricks buried with stones before. I have never been able to piece together anything like this before however. Typically I have had old county surveyor's notes describing what they buried as a memorial,but didn't this time.

I once had notes from the Kay County Surveyor in northern Oklahoma who noted he buried a gun barrel just north of a stone in the 1910's. At the time of his survey, there was no road on the section line. There is a road there now and when I looked for this corner I found a very old bent and broken thin-walled pipe. I called it a found pipe on my corner record, but I would venture to say it was likely a 12 gauge shotgun barrel.

Interesting what you may find if you're willing to dig.

> I grew up drinking that stuff

Dang, Ralph! You look amazingly young for your age. 🙂

> I grew up drinking that stuff

And that's why you grew up to be a big strong surveyor 😀

That is the fun part about having so many surveyors from around the country or meeting them at a conference. I've found wood augers, boiler flues, bottles and other common things but the ones others found is more interesting: a whale vertebra, an anchor, a early 1900's Dr. Pepper bottle, a token "Good for one free cake of Palmolive Soap", old dimes placed in trees at cardinal directions. a draft horse shoe with snow cleats,a pitch wood (lighter) hub with a rusted nail hole, brass clad gun barrel.

Pottery & fence staples beside a record stone in SE Webster County, Missouri. Funny thing was the fences were 40' North of the stone. We just happened along a perfect 4" square stone flush with the ground and on a lark just dug, everything was letter perfect by description and the addition of pottery made a strong case for acceptance. The SE corner was a MoDNR monument that was set on the 40' line North of this location. (we went a little further out)

We found a few more stones in one place on that survey, an old barn that had large stones in stucco for the walls. Amish county. Asked an old farmer where did all those land corners go, he said "His grandfather built this barn with some of the stones the surveyors left". So much for using those in location.

One of the interesting things I found was bits of cast iron stove plates, while working in southwestern SD. It was called out by the GLO Surveyor (Charles Bates if I remember correctly, but could have been Pettigrew or Anderson). Think his survey was around 1878, but could have been a little later.

He called that he set a piece of stove in mound with pits, as required for the corner he was at. Started out with a rather generous piece of iron but as he went along he apparently realized he was going to run out of stove. The smallest piece I found was perhaps 1/2 dollar size. I kept one piece, about 3" x 4" from the Corner of 33, 34 T39 N, 3, 4 T38N R32W as a souvenir, the rest I buried alongside the new monument. Always wondered where he came up with the stove. Later surveys he did he didn't have any iron, used marked stones buried as a memorial. some of these marked stones were rather small also.

That was a Memorial Stone

Bubble gum machine set on end below as called for in 1935 notes

> > I grew up drinking that stuff
>
> Dang, Ralph! You look amazingly young for your age. 🙂

Thanks Alan:-) LOL

> > I grew up drinking that stuff
>
> And that's why you grew up to be a big strong surveyor 😀
>
My mom used to give me a couple spoons a day, I thought it tasted pretty good 😀

I've found a whiskey bottle set upright with the neck as the monument position. The map just set "set monument" with no description. The bottle was spot on.

I many of the subdivisions that have been done around here I'll find aluminum cans and plastic wrappers when I dig up the corners. This is likely just the trash that blows into the open hole over the survey monument from the construction workers on the site. It all gets buried when the fences go up.

I did find the end of an old Ford axle. At least that's what the map said was set. What I found was a solid iron bar. I suppose it could have been an axle.

One surveyor around here used cotton spindles gear things (can't remember what their technical name is) to set points in pavement. They're as durable as an iron spike and they have a nice indent in the top that hold the rod tip perfectly.

Now I am beginning to understand... thanks... never too late to learn:-)

Around here there was a survey company notorious for putting beer cans over their monuments when the cans were still made of steel. Find a lot of those in Altus. We find axles commonly in one particular county, they were favorites of the county surveyor there. Usually they were set beside the stone. In reference to the "cotton gin spindles", we call them cotton picker pins as that is there function in a cotton picker. There is a surveyor nearby that must have a boatload of them because they seem to be his favorite monument.

In Canada, not sure about the states, the original direction given to the land surveyors was to set either stones, monuments, or pits and mounds with broken glass, pottery or bone china. I have found old broken glass and broken pottery set as original corners on Bowen island, bc.
Where I am now, (central washington), there are plenty of old ford axles set as corners. Apparently they wore out quickly, so there were plenty stockpiled when metal became scarce during the world wars.

The Gear from a cotton Ginny is known as a gin pin, and they are also used as they wear out quickly. They are incredibly hard, and will drive through anything (concrete/brick/masonry). I set a bunch in california on the solid brick foundation of an old cannery (being turned into condos). Well worth it to have a few of these lying around for when nothing else will go in.

The area was salted.
The attorney and I reviewed the site and the monuments a week before the view.
We pulled the leaf litter away from the first ring of stones. A rebar was in the middle. We lifted one of the stones to find a bottle underneath. Cool. The bottle was a short beer bottle with a seam... heavily set into the duff... Under stones that the other surveyor was holding for corner called in a deed from the 1860's and supposedly set earlier...
I stopped the attorney from picking it up. I covered it over.
At the view, I brought a pitch fork... Right in front of the judge and the other surveyor, we rediscovered this bottle that had no business being under an original monument. The other surveyor said, "Well I guess that one is no good..."

From this point forward on the view, the Judge instructed me to leave no stone unturned in his presence. There was another monument that was coincident to a property corner of the adjacent subdivision, ca. 1975. I had found the iron pipe before the trial. At the view it was painted bright orange and had a little ring of stones beneath it. Little stones... On top of the leaf litter... And the leaf litter under the stones had drops of paint...

The highlight was when the other surveyor was describing blazes in 8" pine pitch trees that supposedly dated back to the 1800's. The neighbor leaned over and told me he placed those there. The view was rather casual, so I asked if those blazes could be marking the horse trail they were near. The surveyor said, yup, I guess they could. Then the neighbor burst forth and exclaimed how he set those blazes... The attorney for the plaintiff smiled, shook his head and muttered some comment.