It's a bad thing to be pessimistic when looking for old monuments. You always assume it's there.
However, this one has such a slight chance that I'm really fighting the urge to discount it before going out:
And this is the description:
Should be fun ??ÿ
Survey was 1881
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If this is not a developed area Nd that creek is stable I would be optimistic. If you are looking in the middle of a cultivated field or the cemterline of a road, I share your pessimism for finding original evidence, but you may find something else worthwhile.
If this is not a developed area and that creek is stable I would be optimistic. If you are looking in the middle of a cultivated field or the cemterline of a road, I share your pessimism for finding original evidence, but you may find something else worthwhile.
"dug pits 18x18x12", "and raised a mound of earth around tree".
Let us all know what you didn't find.?ÿ ??ÿ
Plains cottonwoods are a fast growing, very short lived tree, 70 years is an old one. Where this one is, there is in a very seasonal river flood way. The chances of it still being there after 137 years is remote, but maybe it's still there or something else marking the corner.
However, this 1/4 isn't a property corner so it's?ÿremote that anyone has bothered to survey it. They tend to decay fast and leave little trace in this area.
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The notes didn't indicate what was in the pits. If it was charcoal or rocks you might have a chance.?ÿ ??ÿ
Retracement Rules:
1. You can't find that which you don't look for.
2. It helps (a lot) to look in the right place.
3. You must know what you're looking for looks like (especially after 100+ years).
4. The old adage that "it's always in the last place you look" doesn't always apply (sometimes there is more than one).
5. It isn't lost just because you haven't found it yet (the next guy just might).
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Loyal
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The river has rerouted in this area, on the plat and in the notes it's 10 chains south of the corner, now it's 3 chains or so north, it doesn't look like timber land anymore, I don't believe that's it's farm land, I will need to chat with the rancher to see if a plow has ever been used there, I suspect not, but you never know.
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The circle is one chain in radius, just to kinda show a rough search area, there are no trees left, you can see them across the river, stones in this area have been really close (+-100') to record.
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I wasn't suggesting that you would find a living a tree, but if it hasn't been plowed and the river hasn't moved through, finding signs of the pits and/or stumphole is very possible.?ÿ
Not looking is not an option.?ÿ
I wasn't suggesting that you would find a living a tree, but if it hasn't been plowed and the river hasn't moved through, finding signs of the pits and/or stumphole is very possible.?ÿ
Not looking is not an option.?ÿ
And I'm not saying I'm not looking ??ÿ
I will say it's annoying that they would have marked a cottonwood, there was a ridge they crossed at 32 chains full of stones, and it was on the correct side of the river. Marking a cottonwood is a little like signing a plat with disappearing ink.
As for pits, I've chatted with BLM surveyors who say they've never seen any in these old surveys. I found a set in the township north of this one, and another set in the township that is 3 north of this one. Both sets were opposite directions from the notes, but I've seen enough pits to know what these were. Very few pits have ever been found?ÿfor these 1880-1882 era surveys. ?ÿ
The presumption that mounds and pits were made is one thing.
Finding one quickly becomes doubtful when the area you are searching is now a soy field, rice patty,?ÿfull-blown cockle burr farm or tree farm.
In areas that waterways are constantly changing course, sandbars come and go changing the terrain and the depth at which the stone may or may not lie.
We have an area called Sulphur Fork which is a wide river bottom that contains many channels of the same river where it has moved north and south over an area of a mile to three miles wide and connects with a couple of other major tributarys feeding the main river where water leaves the banks spreading across the entire river bottom frequently.
Much of the topsoil there in the 1830s has probably made its way thru Louisiana by now and I've never found a resurvey where an original monument was found.
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The "river" clearly changed course, I think it was avulsion, but of course it could have?ÿswiped through?ÿall that land?ÿduring the last 137 years.
However it's amazing what you can find, you never want to say no.
This isn't settled country, ?ÿthere are two dwellings in the township to the north and one in the township in question. It's zoned maximum?ÿ1 house per 12,000 acres type of country. Not a lot of surveying going on, mainly oil activity. Almost virgin country for surveying.
Retracement Rules:
1. You can't find that which you don't look for.
2. It helps (a lot) to look in the right place.
3. You must know what you're looking for looks like (especially after 100+ years).
4. The old adage that "it's always in the last place you look" doesn't always apply (sometimes there is more than one).
5. It isn't lost just because you haven't found it yet (the next guy just might).
Loyal
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Liked that, even though the Like button has taken the weekend off. ?ÿBad Guessimism is directly related to increased Pessimism. ?ÿ?ÿ ??ÿ
4 wheeler sitting on the calculated location for the cottonwood tree. I did not find anything there, metal, wood or pits. Not even a piece of a tree within 50 feet.
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Time for ye ol' probe, but unless you get REALLY LUCKY, or can get within a couple of feet, it's probably safe to call it LOST.
BUT, you actually looked, which is IMPORTANT!
Loyal
Are that a fence post sticking up just off to the right of your machine?
Are that a fence post sticking up just off to the right of your machine?
It looks like a FP, but its not. This 1/4 isn't a property corner. I didn't hear any metal with my detector or feel anything with the probe, I was looking hard for pits, but didn't see or feel anything like two pits.
Look to the sky, shout Hallelujah three times and slap that cap in the ground. File the appropriate recording document and your done.?ÿ
You're not in Texas are you?
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