The world of surveying really did exist prior to the availability of GPS, Total Stations, GoogleEarth, certified corner reports, mandatory recording and metal detectors.
Yes, it really did.?ÿ Therefore, the quick and dirty answers provided by any or all of those tools may give you incorrect information if you aren't smart enough to understand the limitation of those supports.
One of the most egregious potential mistakes made by modern surveyors working in PLSSia, for example, is to obtain the most recently filed section corner report and assume it is the Gospel.?ÿ There may be 20 such reports for that corner.?ÿ What they report can vary quite a bit.?ÿ They may actually be reporting three different locations based on the decisions of different surveyors.?ÿ None of those locations may be the true corner as established by the first surveyor.?ÿ That first monument, whether a wooden stake or stone may, in fact, still be where it was placed.?ÿ It may have been missed or not even sought after by the first surveyor who came along and placed some other monument.?ÿ Those who followed that sloppy surveyor have created other problems.
The same circumstances can easily exist outside of PLSSia.
What is drawn on a town plat, addition plat or subdivision plat and what was actually done are quite frequently two very different things.?ÿ Those who have worked for many years can cite a long list of reasons to deviate from what the first liar put on paper.?ÿ The second, third and fourth liars need to have their work judged closely as well.?ÿ They may have all performed to the standard of the day which may not satisfy today's world.?ÿ So today's world feels a need to "correct" their work despite thousands of court cases supporting what they did.
Surveyors should be seekers of truth.?ÿ The truth does not always come easy.?ÿ Diligence in research far outweighs diligence in measurement practices.?ÿ Measuring very precisely to the wrong place is not the truth.
Amen and Amen.?ÿ?ÿMonuments (original and undisturbed) determine the corners.?ÿ I don't care HOW accurately you measure or WHAT the deed directions and distances are.?ÿ We had an old surveyor here (long dead now) who couldn't measure worth a crap, BUT he monumented the corners he set with identifiable crimped top iron pipes.?ÿ As long as you were aware of how he worked you could recreate his work.?ÿ I don't know how many times I've had to argue with attorneys about the distances I measured as opposed to the deed call.?ÿ "The deed calls for 100 feet but you measured 100.5 feet.?ÿ The owner can't sell what he doesn't own."?ÿ Sigh.
Directions and distances are there to show the way to the monument that DETERMINES the corner.
Andy
I'm amazed (appalled?) at my brethren here in Oklahoma that will re-monument an obliterated PLSS corner from some sketchy evidence 30' away without even wondering about any other corners or anything else for that matter.?ÿ I can fill up a wheel barrow with "certified" corner records like this.?ÿ
Can take you to two corners we needed recently that I had found a few years ago.?ÿ These were in a county paved road and something like 12 to 15 inches deep to the existing 5/8" bars.?ÿ The small holes we had dug to get to both were still present but largely filled with dirt and road clutter over time.?ÿ Next to each hole was a shiny 1/2" bar set by someone who chose to not dig down like we did.?ÿ They are close enough to the true corner that someone comparing our corner reports to theirs might assume the new bar was the old bar, despite it being the wrong size bar and not "down xx inches".
Budget surveying. Done struck again. Is it hard ground? Did you touch a magnet to the top? Does it have a magnetic signature?
Oklahoma can be bad, I think only 1% of the surveyors there actually try to search for original corners.
What am I supposed to do with a corner record that says, "found 60d nail", and nothing else? Tell me why you think it's the corner. Or whether you don't care if it is in the original position, but you think it is the corner of the property you are surveying, or did you just use it because it was the first thing that you found.
5-10% of the time about 30 feet away from the nail is the original stone, the rotted remains of the original stake, or a 1920's county surveyors perpetuation 2' below the road surface.