The Acres more or less

I've followed some early to mid 20th century surveyors that did great field work and just could not compute very well and vice-verse.

Did those two tracts happen to join, that may be one thing to think about.

Some times the land was never there. A few weeks ago I had a 23 acre tract created in 1908 to grow in size in the 1970s when a timber deed made the East and West boundaries grow over 200ft in length so they could cut that much more tall plantation pine, which they did.

Problem was the original partitioned properties surrounding this 23 acre all measured withing a foot or so of called distance with some part of a farm implement set as monuments.

Around here there seemed to be some table surveying going on with some guessed distances and acreages in the middle of some rather good land surveying that used to get all the land speculators excited that they were sure they had bought twice as much land as they were actually getting for half the cost of what was actually there.

That is why I usually research to day one of a tract of land so those surprises turn into smoke screens that blow away real fast when the truth arrives.

B-)

No the tracts didn't join they were in two different counties.

I did survey 11 Acres that joined the 65 Acres. The 11 Acres turned out to be about 8.5 Acres. I guess the original surveyor was a little generous with his calcs.;-)

The 37 (28 by deed) Acres here is the plat. As you can see there are a lot of corners. Which is something else that is pretty normal around here. I imagine (though I know it can't be true) that PLSS is just a bunch of 4 corner surveys. 😛

In my area of the PLSS most of the original landowners received a patent from the Government for 160 acres. The majority of those were typical quarter sections, half mile by half mile. There are so many standard 160s, 80s and 40s that even casual observers might notice a significant shortage or excess. So, the opportunity is probably much less than in your territory. My ancestors took up residence in the eastern portion of what is now West Virginia decades prior to a little spat known as the Revolutionary War. Settlement was not legal in my neighborhood until after the close of another little spat in the 1860s. That, too, makes a big difference.

In the areas of WV where I practice, most of the surveys end up within about 10% of the area stated in the deed. There are exceptions but the majority fall within that %.

I work Boone, Cabell, Kanawha (western half, west of US 119 and I-77), Logan, Lincoln, Mason, Putnam and Wayne counties in WV and Boyd, Greenup and Lawrence counties in KY although most of my work is in Cabell and Wayne counties.

In the one county I do 99% of my work in:

If the description is from the late 1800s to early 1900s I see similar to the range noted by DavidALee - +/-10%.

If it is from the early 1900s to mid 1900s, it is a crap shoot depending on whose name is one it (if there is a name).

Thanks for the copy of the plat John. It will be very helpful to show how other surveyors present data.

Impressive looking plat, John.

Hijack about the plat

Are the dashed lines representing drainage courses? If so, is that a requirement in the West Virginia standards? How far from the subject tract must you go? How precise must they be?

Edit: Just noticed in the title block that you mention the distinct river,creek,etc. Is that because of the gas well or is it required on all surveys?

Hijack about the plat

It's always been standard practice since I started surveying. My boss did it on plats and so I do. It helps the client figure out where they are. I also show any knobs on the property to help a client orient themselves. It is required to show the watershed on every plat. I list it out to the nearest River. I figure it is something the clients would like to know.

Hijack about the plat

> Are the dashed lines representing drainage courses? If so, is that a requirement in the West Virginia standards? How far from the subject tract must you go? How precise must they be?
>

I go out as far as it needs to go on the map area. I overlay topographic and aerial photos in order to draw the drains so they are pretty accurate.

Thanks for the explanation, John

This is one of the really neat things about this surveyors' board. We get the chance to observe how others do things.

I have never seen anything like that done on a plat in Kansas without a fullblown topo being a part of the boundary project. Your back yard and mine are as different as day and night. We have a severe shortage of knobs, for example. Labeling the appropriate watershed could be entertaining as well, especially on large tracts. I own one tract that is in the watershed of three named creeks and it is slightly less than 40 acres in size. The southeast corner drains to one creek. The far north end drains to a different creek running to the east of the first. The central and majority area drains into a third creek which runs to the west of the other two. All three eventually put water into the same river but miles apart. I have three other properties that fall in two watersheds. I have surveyed a tract that is in two radically different watersheds. Water from the western half ends up eventually entering Oklahoma and further along joins the Arkansas River which finally hits the Mississippi River near Napoleon, Arkansas. The water from the eastern half ends up eventually in the Missouri River which finally hits the Mississippi River near St. Louis, Missouri. Two very different journeys for those rain droplets.