I would say that a good 80% of my work is PLSS work in an area of large farms and ranches. Restoring lost and obliterated corners is a very frequent task of ours. If you found out that a surveyor surveying much of the same area has been proportioning lost corners by not by using the original GLO Plat and notes as the record distance but rather the most recent survey (not a BLM or State resurvey) of the line for over 20 years, how would you handle that? Assuming that after the conversation, moving forward this practice would be changed. I really, really don't want to cause him any problems. He's a really good guy.
The area in question is a really screwed up area with "the short cut method" having been used in a lot of townships. The non short cut areas were either horribly retraced through the years, or very carelessly surveyed originally. The closest that I've ever checked between monuments and the original survey record is +/- 4'. I have yet to find 2 original monuments during the same survey to see how well they fit each other.?ÿ
That's a hard ship to row.?ÿ I'd be calling my board weekly if I reported all the shortcuts I see PLSs take.?ÿ My mind wanders to the unintended consequences that could result.?ÿ Some people seem to have an easy time dismissing the carnage a tattle can cause to the families of the guilty party, I don't.?ÿ I find an element of evil in the phrase, "They should have known better, it's their own fault", which, in some form or another, is what the tattletale says to himself while watching the fire they started spread out of control.
I wouldn't call the board on someone who is basically good but lazy.?ÿ I would reserve that call for someone who is committing blatant fraud or illegal activity such as lying about or obscuring facts, charging people for surveys when no fieldwork was performed, or accepting bribes etc..
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I tell my children that the right thing to do is usually the hardest.?ÿ Maybe when you retrace this surveyors work and find deficiencies, you could send him plats that will provide him with the correct data??ÿ I'm not sure that I would have the time to do that, but anything along the lines of helping him be better than he is would seem like a better option than trying to use administrative force.
If the problem is not going to be happening again, then it seems like a closed case.?ÿ No good can happen from turning the guy in.?ÿ 20 years of bad surveying is still going to be out there and the board is not going to make him revisit every survey he has done with poor practices.
How is not using the original GLO distances in proportioning any easier than using the same data from a newer survey?
Maybe I'm missing something in the OP. But my off the top answer is he's correct and you're wrong. Not a little wrong but bigly wrong.?ÿ
Why would you ignore evidence and prorate over it??ÿ
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Why is he proportioning from newer surveys anyway??ÿ If those aren't fitting the monuments then it sounds like there's even bigger problems going on out there.
@john-putnam NOT searching for and reviewing the GLO records would be easier... but then you would assuming those more recent resurveys had done a proper job.
If there is no adequate metadata on the resurvey that would be faulty.
This sounds like virtually the entire area in which I work.?ÿ Assuming the GLO work is perfect is absolutely wrong.?ÿ You work with what has been done by those who have gone before you.?ÿ This is part of why I laughed so hard many years back on this site or its predecessor when I was told the north and south quarters were set based on the Earth's curvature instead of a straight line.?ÿ Many were never set and others were set by turning a right angle from the west line at 40 chains.?ÿ It was a myth when they claimed they measured to the northeast corner and returned to the center point then adjusted for curvature.?ÿ Ha!
Attempting to resolve locations entirely by following the map will not work for many reasons.?ÿ An excellent example of that is following a town plat from the 1800's that was put on paper long before there was enough population to fill the platted area for years.?ÿ Theoretically, one would find the original corners of a rectangular plat every time a survey of a single lot in a block was to be surveyed, put them in your black box (computer drawing), determine where the lot corners are (per your method), then go set them precisely where they SHOULD BE.?ÿ That is not where you will find any monuments set previously to your arrival in that town.?ÿ Your bars will be put in the wrong places, but very precisely.
The BLM does quite a bit of retracement in this area, they will always look at newer private surveys to help place corners.?ÿ
@mightymoe Not ignoring new evidence at all. For example, the need to proportion in a lost 1/4 cor arises, the person used the record length from a 5 year old survey in his calculations rather than the original record length.
@bstrand he said because it was newer and therefore a better record distance.
I'm not convinced that the surveyors method is necessarily faulty. We are supposed to go with best evidence of a monument location, with proportioning based on GLO as an absolutely last resort.?ÿ
The OP did not say that this surveyor didn't acquire and review the GLO notes. Only that he relied on newer resurvey?ÿ data for his resolution.
4 feet difference between GLO and modern measurement is nothing. Far from being critical, I'd be doing my happy dance if I came out that close here in the PNW. I recently tied up a couple that were off over 120 feet in a half mile.?ÿ 6-10 feet was pretty typical in Oklahoma.
