Figured I would make my first post here a good one. These are pictures (from my Iphone) from Pecos County, Texas. Big thanks to Andy Nold for his help on the project.
Map of area I am working in.
This is the SWC of a scrap file Survey 34 1/2 Block 194.
The SEC of same scrap file
The NWC of Section 61 Block 1 I & GN R.R. Co. Survey. This one was in a ravine that made for a nice little climb into and out of.
Nearly put my hand down on this little guy (I named him Fred) climbing out of the ravine. Think this is a mottled rock rattlesnake.
I ran into his buddy on top of the ravine headed back to the truck. Spotted this one a little quicker than I did the previous one.
NWC of Section 103 Block 194 Texas Central Railway Survey
SWC of same Section
Pincushion anyone?
View from pincushion.
"X" chisled in the face of a rock ledge.
and finally
The SWC of Section 63 Block 1 I & GN R.R. Co. Survey. This one was my favorite find because I actually did a field calculation to find this. My calc was only 24 feet off the actual posistion. I also found a 5/8 IR at a calc'd position for an interior corner of this survey but didn't take a picture.
Very cool! The have better material for "old" corners in West Texas than East Texas.
🙂
Much easier to find original corners and perpetuated corners there than a lot of places I have surveyed. Brings back some nice memories. Left West Texas in '99. Wouldn't mind going back.
SJ
Cool pix.
Nice pics! Unfortunately, my 9 y/o daughter just declared, "I will never, NEVER be a surveyor." She apparently does not like snakes.
Of course, Cy doesn't mention that he is working in the Yates Oil Field:
The Yates Oil Field is a giant oil field in the Permian Basin of west Texas. Primarily in extreme southeastern Pecos County, it also stretches under the Pecos River and partially into Crockett County. Iraan, on the Pecos River and directly adjacent to the field, is the nearest town. The field has produced more than one billion barrels of oil, making it one of the largest in the United States, and in 2009 it remains productive, though at a diminished rate. Estimated recoverable reserves are still approximately one billion barrels, which represents approximately 50% of the original oil in place.
This is in the area where landmark Texas surveying case law was made thanks to Fred Turner. Miller v. Yates and Turner v. Smith are two of the cases that came out of the vacancy in this area. J.J. Bowden wrote a book "Uncertain Riches" about the whole development of that field. The money fights and fortunes built and lost would make a movie that would blow Dallas & JR Ewing out of the water.
It's rugged territory to say the least and a cool place to survey in my opinion.
Andy
I had to leave something for you to talk about.
The mottled rock rattlesnake
Good thing I didn't try to catch one of those babies. Just found out they are protected from capture by state law.
From tshaonline.org
Mottled rock rattlesnakes (C. lepidus lepidus) are often common in broken desert, canyon, and evergreen mountain terrain. The species has evolved dorsal coloring that substantially matches the prevailing hues of its background terrain-pinkish on the russet igneous boulders of the Davis Mountains, pale gray on the chalky limestone of the central Hill Country and southwestern deserts. The banded rock rattlesnake (C. l. klauberi), named for a noted authority on rattlesnakes, Lawrence M. Klauber, is a distinctly black-crossbanded subspecies found primarily in the two westernmost counties of Texas, but it has been reported in Val Verde County as well. Because of their unusual pigmentation both races of rock rattlers are attractive to reptile fanciers and are therefore protected from capture by state law.
The mottled rock rattlesnake
That is a good looking rattlesnake.
Link to GLO File
Here's a link to (a 25MB pdf of) the Texas GLO file for the survey that Cyril is dealing with.
https://scandocs.glo.state.tx.us/webfiles/landgrants/pdfs/5/2/8/528556.pdf
Link to GLO File
If for some reason that link doesn't pull up the pdf for that Scrap File, this info (or some combination of it) entered into the GLO Land Grant data base will.
County: Pecos
Abstract Number: 8196
District/Class: Scrap File
File Number: 012394
Original Grantee: Yates, I G
Patentee: Yates, I G
Patent Date: 30 Apr 1927
Patent No: 103
Patent Vol: 34A
Survey/Blk/Tsp: 34 1/2 194-
Acres: 1107
Link to GLO File
The link worked for me.
How did Dod's reference calls check?
Just as a point of curiosity, how did Captain Dod's bearings that he reported to various objects check resurvey results? I assume that "X" in the rock face shown in the photo is Dod's bearing object that he reported as bearing S40°25'W, 82 varas from his location of the SW corner of Survey 63, for example.
Likewise, he gives bearings from various corners to topo features like "East edge rim rock", "windmill", "cap rock", "west side of a gap", and "square block on rocky point". Did you check any of those for comparison, by any chance?
How did Dod's reference calls check?
The "X" is actually in or supposedly on the the South line of Section 61, Block 1, of the I. & G.N. R.R. Co. survey. I didn't find any of his reference points and probably will not have a chance to go back out there again. My trip yesterday was cut short when a storm rolled in and I had a ground strike within a 100 yards of me. I figured after a couple of rattlesnakes and a near miss on the ligthning strike it was time to box up and head home. I would really like to be able to spend a couple more days out there but we did obtain enough information for the well ties we are doing.
How did Dod's reference calls check?
>I would really like to be able to spend a couple more days out there but we did obtain enough information for the well ties we are doing.
I assume that you were working from the map of some resurvey that claimed to have found Dod's location of the survey 34-1/2? I'd think that in an area that has been as intensively resurveyed as the area around the Yates field the chances that someone got "creative" are vastly improved. I'm just curious to know what connected what you found with Dod's record.
Educate the Unknowing
What is a scrap file and how did that name come to exist?
Educate the Unknowing
yeah I want to know the same thing.
Nice post Cyril. Never saw a rattlesnake that looked anything like that mottled rock rattler in California.
Scrap Lands Act
Well a Scrap File is a designation used in the (Texas) GLO for a class of land sold by the State of Texas under the provisions of state law originally known (as best I can recall) as the "Scrap Lands Act", or one for which an application to purchase under those terms was made. Not all scrap files pertain to tracts that were actually found to be vacant or upon which a sale was made or patent later issued.
The metes and bounds system of land grants used in Texas left all sorts of vacancies, bits and pieces of unsurveyed land, that had been appropriated in 1900 to the the predecessor of the Permanent School Fund known as the Public Free School Fund. These were to be sold for the the benefit of the Public Free School Fund. This 1000+ acres that Ira Yates applied to purchase was one such vacancy.
Yates applied to purchase what was later patented as Survey 34-1/2, Block 194 under the terms of Section 7 of the act of April 3, 1919 providing for the sale of that unsurveyed school land.
The law under which Ira Yates applied to purchase
Here's a link to the amendments to Section 7 of Article 5432 of the Revised Civil Statutes as approved on April 3, 1919, the law under which Ira Yates applied in 1920 to purchase the 1100+ acres of what later became known as Survey 34-1/2 and under which the land was subsequently sold to him and patent issued using the field notes that R.S. Dod, LSLS had prepared.
Section 7 of Article 5432 (revisions approved April 3, 1919)
