Stuff I hadn't seen in the GLO before.

here are a few more pics.
this is what I found. No corner rec for this guy.

viewed from the south

viewed from the north-

looking west

got some additional research and a few phone calls to make.

Is it just the 'blank line' reference that you had not seen before? Or is there more info that is interesting?

A lot of those notes are the solar instrument checks, the fallings and so forth you have undoubtedly seen a zillion times.

The term 'blank line' has been debated within BLM in my memory on occasion for years. I think it means a line that is "not a boundary" typically like a random line. You see it in the east when going across features like lakes or reservations where there is no boundary (or is there?). But the term is one that has a loose definition and use.

Perhaps it was at one point used to describe a line run quick and dirty without blazing trees as prescribed by the instructions for final true lines but that is sort of clear that these lines are what we would refer to as random and not true line.

What does blank mean? Many have wondered.

My first intuition would be to substitute the word random for blank. In GLO/BLM parlance that is a line run to find the ultimate relative position of corners so thus you have the line and a falling and then the true line back.

Random is not random at all in the modern statistical sense, but simply a line run that is known but is probably not on the boundary. Well you know all that.

Was there something else in the notes that you hadn't seen before that interested you?

- jlw

I would think that blank line is a random line.
There could be other possibilities.

I love it when some idiot comes along and sets a new shiny monument marked as the corner next to a perfectly good original monument. WTF? Tells you a lot about the persons' understanding of the definition of: remonumentation, rehabilitation, corner, corner point, etc.

Pablo

Be careful with that one. Check BLM doctrine on Bona Fide Rights. A found corner of record may not be parcel corner regardless of legal description. I think it depends on surveys that were done after the GLO corner was set.

Jim

Interesting stuff. I've never seen "blank" line before, but would assume in this case it was a random line.

What would you do if you found the stone with the "+" 5.00 chains north of the corner position?

First, I would think I was pretty darn lucky that day, and then I would consider it an accessory to the corner, of course.

The blank lines I've seen have been section lines run inside an Independent Resurvey Tract that were not monumented. They would set a closing corner on the Tract line and continue along the section line to the section corner but at the 1/4 corner and at the section corner they would call them out but then the notes would say "not monumented". So the line is blank. But in your notes they are running along a monumented line and that is something new to me.

"...on a blank line..."

I have seen it a few times (maybe half a dozen), and it always appears to be [more or less] synonymous with “Random Line.”

Loyal

Jerry,

I have seen a "blank line" used similarly as a tie, with the meaning that the surveyor did not have authority, or need, to fully survey the line, but was making the measurement to the next controlling monument skipping over normal full survey or resurvey where topo calls were made, line blazed and marked, etc. Sometimes it was helpful to do this to provide continuity in the field note record, and the statement "blank line" was used to make a point in the survey record that the line was not fully surveyed to normal Manual standards.

Blank line...seen it many times. It is a line run at their record from observed polaris etc. normally West East North or South, then a tie to a found previously set corner. I usually take it as a randomly run line.

Pablo

YEAH! What Paul said.... The half-dozen or so surveys (spread over several states) in which I encountered it, that's pretty much what was going on. Completion and/or Dependent Resurveys in all cases as I recall.

Loyal

Maybe a Blank Line means an explicative, such as a *-/?!@$%^&* line, or a blankety-blank line. I've ran some of those. 🙂

Agree with Loyal that "blank" lines are the same as "random" lines. Seen it both ways in Nebraska depending upon the surveyor.

I hadn' seen the "blank Line" comment before, always just on a random line,
then I'd never seen the call for marking a set stone during the adjustment. always, just to a stake, stake and tack or a mark.

then the other curious thing that no one has mentioned yet, itis that the stone is marked opposite of the calls in the notes and the corner rec.

Earlier today, I was able to talk to the surveyor who set the cap and we had a good conversation. He was in the field so we kept it short and we'll probably talk again tomorrow once he has a chance to go thru his records.

Hey, I just did a retracement 2 miles east of there and I have followed that surveyor, if I read the company correctly, with a lack of filed corner records.

Regarding the 'blank line' statement: the 2009 Manual continues the same use as previous Manuals. Look at the sample field notes on pages 384 and 385. The blank line is used when the line crosses a land grant, reservation or whatever, that is not subject to subdivision by the GLO/BLM, but the line needs to be carried across the grant to continue on the other side.

There are most likely exceptions to the rule, but that is the way the Manuals (1947, 1973 and 2009)have said it was to be done.

Jerry

That's what I was saying Jerry. It there is no authority to survey a line across a reservation, land grant, US Survey, US Mineral Survey, or whatever, we would use describe a blank line to keep continuity and order in the field note record.

You all have it right. Talked to the some BLM surveyors the other night at our chapter meeting and it was explained as a line run but not monumented within other land grants which they have no authority.

Pablo