Soil Probe Recommendation

> I have a short (about 3') soil probe in my truck, but it's kind of light-duty and not as long as I'd like. I plan to buy a longer one -- I'm thinking 4' would be fine -- but don't know if I should go with a steel or fiberglass shaft.

If you're wanting to use the probe for boundary surveying purposes such as probing for stones or old postholes and such, I personally prefer a probe with a tee handle that comes to about belt buckle level. That way, in stiff soil you can lean on the probe handle for a gravity assist.

I've tried probes with flexible shafts and have not found them all that useful in stiff soils. The probe that I've used for years and like best is made from 1/2" smooth steet rod, rounded to a bullet-nose point and welded to a tee-handle. Any welding shop should be able to weld you a couple if you bought in the pieces. Make a 48" and a 36" and I suspect you'll use the 36" and cut the 48" down.

You can't fold a single-piece probe for transport, but it fits in a truck bed easily enough.

I used to have (hmmm... don't know where it went...) a 72" M-PACT probe. It has a insulated rubber handle that also doubles as a sliding impact hammer to help get through asphalt or hard material easier. It also has a replaceable tip and they come in 36", 48", 60" or 72" lengths with a 1/2" dia. shaft. Best probe I have ever used, but you do have to know how to use it and don't go THROUGH a utility....as with any probe.

Here is some more information about them.

I have one of these:

Mighty Probe

Mine is the 3/8 model, they make a 7/16.

It's worked good. I've never pushed it into an underground electric line to test that feature.

Ok, I am thoroughly interested in this thread. What have you guys ever located with a probe like this for boundary stuff? I admit I've used some thing similar to probe for ledge, or septic tanks, but that's about it.

You guys are trying to tell us you've successfully "probed" for buried stakes-n-stones? Or other monuments?

:-$

If you are in tater dirt (no rocks) looking for a rock that may be buried, probing works better than digging, at least initially. Looking for a fence that has been removed a probe will find the soft holes filled in. When I set flared end pipe markers that require digging a hole 2 to 3 feet deep I usually set a spike and washer under the marker. I can use the probe to make a hole for the spike while looking through the plummet. There is a lot of other uses. It's a tool that should be in the excavation kit of every surveyors truck.

I've probed to find old privies for the purpose of finding old bottles...

I suspect that there are areas in this country where rocks are not common place and the soils are relatively soft.
Wouldn't work very well in most parts of my county except for locating the stumps of ancient bearing trees that have long since rotted.

I am patiently awaiting a nice story with pictures elaborating on the usefulness of probes to find old stones.

At the Tip of the Probe

> You guys are trying to tell us you've successfully "probed" for buried stakes-n-stones? Or other monuments?

Sure, of course. I use my probe for finding 19th-century surveyor's monuments like these:

This is a stake and mound corner that was described in 1838 along the side of the San Antonio Road near the present-day town of Uhland in Hays County, Texas :

Closeup of same:

The last record I found of any surveyor visiting this corner was about 1880, so there was no ferrous stake to find with a metal detector. The nearest corner of the 1838 survey was nominally 2200 varas distant. In reality, that distance was about 22 varas shorter than that, so finding the corner involved examining a search area that was nearly 100 ft in length and more than 10 ft in width.

This stone mound was made in 1854 by A.M. Lindsey, the son of the surveyor, Wm. Lindsey, who laid out the Town of Galveston. it involved investigating a search area about five ten feet wide and forty feet long.

This rock mound was also made in 1854 by Lindsey:

The search area on this one was narrower, about 15 ft. x 15 ft., since a couple of other finds had narrowed things considerably and Lindsey had given a passing call on a branch that was close enough to be useful to limit the search space.

I don't believe that I would have found any of those stone mounds without a probe.

The tile probe is even more useful for finding post holes of fence posts and stumpholes of long dead bearing trees.

At the Tip of the Probe

And here's another good find with a probe: an old fenceline from its post holes.

You need a good eye for clues and a tape to search at regular distances once you figure out what the average post spacing was.

The white PVC "lath" are stuck in post holes that I found by probing to then locate to reconstruct the line of the fence that was used as a boundary in about 1924 when a tract was divided. The holes had filled in with soil, but material of a looser texture into which the probe could be readily extended, unlike the undisturbed soil around the hole.

Obviously, the "ancient" deer-proof fence to the side of the original line has no particular relation to the boundary.

In some soil conditions, post holes last quite a long time as features of different soil texture that can be readily distinguished with a probe. One of my favorite fence finds was a fence that in 1938 was described as fallen down and a couple of years ago had no posts standing. However, the line of the fence could be identified from the remnant post holes.

At the Tip of the Probe

Here's about an 1870-vintage rock mound that I found with a probe in a location that is out in the right-of-way of a county road. The road turned right by the corner to go around the grounds of a former school house and so didn't get graded out.

The search area on this one was about 10 ft. x 10 ft. (no recent recovery in over a century as far as I could determine).

The lesson of that story is you never know what you'd find until you look. However, the probe was really the only feasible means to find the corner with an economy of effort.

At the Tip of the Probe

Kent
This looks similar to the fence post search I helped investigate.

At the Tip of the Probe

> This looks similar to the fence post search I helped investigate.

Yes, John, the fenceline shown in the photo above is only about three miles away from the southernmost location where we were probing for post holes along the road.

At the Tip of the Probe

Those piles of stones look a lot like what we see around northern California for 1/4 corners. Not much effort went into building the marker, even though materials were available within 50'.

They are especially hard to find on a steep hill where half the stones have slid 5'-10' down the hill.

You really have to be careful and not move any stones...just the soil and vegetation. You doubt yourself...and slowly the stone mound is revealed. It is amazing how well it shows up once the duff is removed.

A lay person would question the corner, but if you know what your looking for it stands right out.

At the Tip of the Probe

> Those piles of stones look a lot like what we see around northern California for 1/4 corners. Not much effort went into building the marker, even though materials were available within 50'.

> You really have to be careful and not move any stones...just the soil and vegetation. You doubt yourself...and slowly the stone mound is revealed. It is amazing how well it shows up once the duff is removed.

Yes, part of the value of having a probe is you can find the edges of the mound before uncovering it. A trowel and nylon whisk broom can be useful in cleaning up the mound without shifting any of the stones. Once the mound is uncovered, the next part of the exercise is, of course, finding its center. Sometimes, the remains of a cedar stake are left in it, but more typically the center is shown by the pattern in which the rocks were arranged after making allowances for those that toppled off what once was probably a perfectly recognizable pile.