the county road and bridge department sometimes directs the county surveyor to investigate disputed rights of ways. In my rural county, it is not uncommon to find the traveled way cutting corners of sharp platted subdivision corners, or of dedicated rights of way that are ambiguous as to the precise right of way. I retraced an entire 1950 subdivision, done prior to the days of engineered subdivisions, and duly noted that one such corner, the gravel road lies roughly 30 feet OUTSIDE of the right of way. And it just so happens that this platted public right of way touches the bank of a pond, and the adjoining landowner to the north had acquired a metes and bounds tract adjoining his lot - but that the language of the metes and bounds tract called for "beginning at a point on the north side of the county road", which meant obviously to me the "right of way", since a landowner may not obtain a part of the public right of way by beginning at the edge of the roadway. My plat which correctly showed the monumented and dedicated boundaries vs the conflicting location of the roadway and the even more complicated conflicting of the INTENDED metes and bounds tract, was distributed to the 30 owners of the subdivision. One gentleman saw that the right of way could be used as a public access to the pond - and all these factors led to such mass confusion that I was called to an on site meeting with several disputing landowners, and several county officials e.g. attorneys, commissioners, road and bridge, in other words, people who have looked at a lot of survey plats, but don't know the difference between "road" and "right of way", and generally can't fathom how anything done by a surveyor could be "wrong". a road NOT within the right of way is too much to digest. One more little thing in this brewing storm. Another survey crew had recently staked out another, non-related subdivision and had traversed along this road through the trees for its line of site. Prominently set near the southwest corner of the antagonists Lot in quesiton was a rebar, and a lath boldly marked 'CP -100'. I had set my pin at the true corner, about two feet into the gravel, and buried it 3" to hide it from the snowplows. The whole group had arrived for the meeting. the antagonist who owned the Lot on the north side of this mess - with the metes and bounds tract to his east - had arrived early and tied a string line from the north side of the road at the pond, west about 100 feet, to the "CP-100" stake. as we all arrived he announced to the group that this is his boundary and no one is allowed north of it". His neighbor immediately objected and showed him my plat saying that we were all standing on public right of way and he can use this space to back his boat into the pond (which was true). From the first second of the meeting, all participants, including me, were confused by the string line. It matched nothing on any of the maps. I asked why he had chosen the "control point 100" to put a string up. He said that CP means "corner point". Whether or not this was true was moot, it did nothing to resolve the boat in the water issue, but this blunder was causing mass hysteria by now. so, I dug out my pin, (which this landowner had seen for weeks), and showed the group that on the pin was my name and number, and correlated to the man's southwest property corners, clearly identified on my map that everyone had. Now the county people were completely befuddled when I took my big pliers (kept with me for removing my own goofs) and pulled out 'CP 101'. "Why did you pull out the man's corner point, the county people asked?". By this time, I didn't even try to explain to them why the metes and bounds tract could not legally start from the road, but could only legally start from the right of way. the antogonist by now keet yelling at his neighbor to "get off his land!!! or else!!!. I explained to the group that since I was obviously wasting their time, I would move along. A few weeks later, I read complaints from both the landowner, but especially the road and bridge super, who stated in a formal complaint that I had removed the gentleman's "corner point". fast forward, and by now I have extensive knowledge of where all the monuments are in this and three other adjacent subdivisions, all the gremlins, and all the skeletons, from surveys by differing surveyors in the 50's, 60's and 90's. last summer all of these lots , 110 total, were burned to a crisp by the East Troublesome Fire. Both the fire fighters, and the huge equipment cleanup in the aftermath, surely wiped out unknown numbers of monuments. I feared that 100 homeowners were going to hire 100 surveyors to start the rebuilding process. I was asked what I thought, and I responded by saying I would donate about half my time to resurvey and remonument all the county roads and 4 subdivisions, placing the monuments back where I knew they USED to be - one surveyor, one "setup". (i calculated that I would donate about 2 weeks of my time to help my long community rebuild, if they paid me for about half the job, which they agreed). I stated to the authorities that they should pick one surveyor for this reason - there is a history with these places that you'd better know and understand and "consistency" is a factor. (the history and amazing events is another postcard). the county was ok with this, and the homeowners had several "zoom meetings" to discuss my offer. "he's (me) the one that screwed the whole thing up in the first place"!!!! one angry homeowner stated. He hired another surveyor and you guessed it, his neighbor already called my complaining about how he "did it wrong". I'm about half way done. I'll stay away from the few who objected to my presence on their land - but at least I'm giving something back.
ps - you guessed it, I have found a few "melted" plastic caps, and some of these places are so screwed up that I really really wish I knew that number so that I could understand what actually happened.
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You, Sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.?ÿ We need far more of your kind in this field of endeavor.
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I took my big pliers (kept with me for removing my own goofs) and pulled out 'CP 101'.
The tire iron in the truck works well for those who get in such a hurry, they set six, three foot irons incorrectly, because they forgot to switch to a +10mm from the -30mm backsight.?ÿ
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edit:?ÿ just trying to add light to subject. I feel the weigh there, that is a lot of work, and definite points from the field crew here
The tire iron in the truck works well?ÿ?ÿ
How do you pull a rerod using a tire iron? I must be envisioning the wrong tool, which could be used to dig but not to grab.
How do you pull a rerod using a tire iron? I must be envisioning the wrong tool, which could be used to dig but not to grab
You bind up the tip in the socket of the tire iron and twist and pull.?ÿ A 7/8"(?) open end wrench works too
The horizontal tight grip of Vise Grips around the top of a bar plus a long digging bar and a fulcrum can get the upward movement started on tough ones.?ÿ By moving the grip down the bar as possible, you can "jack" it out of the ground.
Being an old farm boy with old farm boy toys, I have pulled really tough bars out by using a length of log chain and the bale spear on the back of a pickup.?ÿ One time the rear tires were squatting quite a bit before "liftoff" occurred.
In the geotechnical engineering world, there are tools for that:
To bad Kent doesn't post here anymore ????
He had this procedure wired?ÿ
Careful, or certain surveyors here will start bashing you for "those in our profession that would yank everything out and set their own ??monument?".?ÿ
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@hi-staker I think everyone understands what I mean when I say if I knew WHICH melted cap survived, this all holds together. If I choose the wrong melted cap, I'm chasing bubbles all over four subdivisions!
Beautiful area.?ÿ Spent about 10 days there last fall chasing elk and mule deer up around St. Louis Lake area.?ÿ
My uncle spent his entire career surveying for the BLM out there.
@rj-schneider Sounds like you mean a lug wrench. I think few people alive today have ever seen, let alone used, an automotive tire iron. A tire iron is a flat, lever-like tool for getting the bead of a tire on or off the rim of a wheel. These were common tools back in the days of tubed automotive tires, when motorists would fix flats on their own by un-mounting a tire, patching or replacing the tube, and remounting the tire. Bicyclists are still familiar with a similar tool, called a "tire lever," but typically made of plastic rather than iron or steel, and much smaller. But these too might fade into memory, as tubeless bicycle tires become more and more common.
@bill-c I used tire irons many times in the past but knew this was a lug wrench!
Warren - out of curiosity, does Colorado have a Road Legalization Statute? These laws have been on the books in Oregon since statehood. The current iteration is Oregon Revised Statutes chapter 368.201 through 368.221. It works well in most cases and the old R/W is, by law, immediately "void" when the legalization is done. No juggling dedications and subsequent vacation of the old R/W.?ÿ
Simply put, the road legalization procedure is used to clarify the record of the right-of-way boundaries of a county road if one or more of the following conditions exist:
- If doubt exists as to the legal establishment of a county road (it has to be a county road)
- If the location of the road cannot be accurately determined
- If a road traveled for 10 years or more does not conform to the location in the county records.
On page 1 of the attached survey, note the 1921 road alignment on the "Project Area" sketch. This was all cleaned up by the legalization alignment which was the as-built centerline of the road as it had existed for decades.
This is a public process with notification sent out to affected landowners, public meetings and a remonstrance period. The County Commissioners have the final say on if the legalization is ordered to be finalized after weighing the benefit to the public vs. the belly aching of some of the citizens along the road.
