Okay, so one of the tasks for today was to look for a corner of a 75-acre tract that in 1898 had reportedly been established on the common line of two land grants originally surveyed in 1844 somewhere in Texas. The 1895 surveyor had tied to what he described as being the common corner of the grants, but there was a small problem. It happens.
The 1898 surveyor described the corner as being marked by a stake from which "a Black Jack [Oak] mkd. H brs. N5°W, 20 vrs." That bearing tree does not fit either of the two calls that the 1844 surveyor made for Black Jack Oaks at the corner. Other evidence indicated that the corner probably now falls in a public road and that both of the original bearing trees would be within the cleared right-of-way.
Rough measurements indicated that where the 1898 surveyor reported a Black Jack Oak marked "H", there is now a dead 36-inch Live Oak. At least, the few leaves remaining on the tree look like those of Quercus virginiana, not Quercus marilandica, and the dead tree looks mostly like a Live Oak killed by oak wilt fungus.
But at a distance of only 334-1/2 varas (929.2 ft.) the 1898 surveyor reported that he set a "stake from which a Black Jack marked P brs N21-1/4°E, 25-1/5 vrs." So, the idea was to see whether that corner and its bearing tree could be identified and whether its position would support the idea that the 1898 surveyor (who elsewhere in the public records called Live Oaks "Life Oaks", so there may not have been a lot of sophistication about trees that went into the field with him) had simply misidentified a variety of Live Oak with pointed leaf margins as being a Black Jack Oak (it has happened elsewhere).
I found what I'm reasonably certain is the corner and its bearing tree, now standing dead. The stake was apparently replaced quite a long time ago with a stone under which some person had placed the base and stem of a broken heavy glass goblet in a soft spot in the soil that is exactly how I'd expect the hole made by a 2-1/2" wood stake cut from a tree branch to be. The stone, a limestone that doesn't occur naturally anywhere nearby, had been laid over the hole, apparently as a visible reminder of the corner.
I'll tell you that the Punchmark on the Aluminum Cap affixed to a 5/8" Iron Rod that I set at the center of the hole (after removing the goblet) is at the following coordinates in units of US Survey Feet, referring to the South Central Zone of the Texas Coordinate System of 1983; NAD83(2011)Epoch 2010.0:
N= 13801598.740 E= 2610382.059
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it should not be a challenge to any surveyor to find that corner from just those coordinates alone. The beauty of the SPCS is that things can end up being just that simple.
Over Yonder in Fayette County?
Just west of Schulenburg, south of US 90, along the MM Gillespie and the JH Whitehurst Surveys?
Over Yonder in Fayette County?
> Just west of Schulenburg, south of US 90, along the MM Gillespie and the JH Whitehurst Surveys?
Yes, and more exactly: N2°05'00"W (Grid bearing), 927.38 ft. = 333.857 varas (Surface distances computed using a Project Average Combined Scale Factor of 0.999870; Surface Dist. = Grid Dist. / 0.999870) from the position in which the 1898 surveyor reported the South common corner of the Gillespie snd Whitehurst Surveys to be, on the East line of a public road presently known as "Marty Road" and originally as "the Patik-Engle Road".
Over Yonder in Fayette County?
By the way, the corner of the 75 acre tract I found was the corner of a tract conveyed in 1898 to a fellow named Vicenc Hranicky. If any reader knows enough about Czech pronunciations to be able to spell "Vicenc" phonetically, I'd appreciate knowing how to pronounce it. Left to my own devices, I'm thinking "Vee-chenk".
Over Yonder in Fayette County?
Over Yonder in Fayette County?
Is the above location close? I don't know if I fat-fingered something or not.
Where are the pics?
I know you made several. Pictures are worth a million words.
Over Yonder in Fayette County?
> Is the above location close? I don't know if I fat-fingered something or not.
That looks very close. The actual NAD83(2011)Epoch 2010.0 position is:
Lat= 29°41'00.47667", Long= 96°58'42.00829"
Where are the pics?
> I know you made several. Pictures are worth a million words.
Actually, I didn't take any photos of either the corner I mentioned or its BT standing dead. The reason for the tie in the first place was to corroborate the position of the original survey corner to the South (approximately where the road turns East). That corner was needed to prove up another corner about 1900 feet away.