The thread on the floating pin reminded me of this experience for March of 1991. We were surveying a ranch that consisted of numerous quarter-quarter sections jutting out from some more common quarter sections in about three different sections. The ground was either deep creek bottom soils or one-half inch depth to bedrock atop bluffs or about four inch depth to bedrock in open pasture land. The section corner stones, and they were all listed as being stones rather than stake and pits, were set in 1866, just 125 years earlier. A private survey dated 1909 had set most of the other corners we needed.
A key section corner fell close to an existing winding private road so we headed there first. It was easy to find. It was perfectly straight upright but fully above ground. A cage of sorts had been fashioned by someone consisting of 20 or more bars surrounding it, with wires laced between the numerous bars to form a network of support firmly holding the stone in place. The original report indicated it was on the east bank of a skinny little slough at a bend. Erosion had slowly moved the centerline of the little slough to the opposite side of the stone, leaving it nekkid as a jaybird. The 1909 surveyor had found it on it's side in the open bed of the slough. Someone else came along later after some dirt appeared around it and set it up and built the cage. I imagine there wasn't much soil depth to drive the bars into, but it worked.
They fall over all the time...
We've got this hunk of rock we call "Initial Point" and everybody thinks it's pretty neat...what a lot of surveyors don't realize it's actually a re-set. Here's a pic of it in 1925, in the prone position. The story goes some locals felt there was a buried "Spanish treasure" at the base...
The bottom pic shows the pile of rocks required to stand it back up....hopefully close to its original location.
I personally have never seen a stone like this and always find these really intriguing. I always have to wonder how they got that stone out there, where did the stone come from? We order monuments from companies that make them, was there a company that cut large stones down to cornerstone size?
McCracker, post: 357574, member: 9299 wrote: I personally have never seen a stone like this and always find these really intriguing. I always have to wonder how they got that stone out there, where did the stone come from? We order monuments from companies that make them, was there a company that cut large stones down to cornerstone size?
In the case of Oklahoma's IP, it's a bit of a mystery. The monolith, some 2 foot square by 7 or 8 feet in length is recorded as, an indeed IS, red sandstone...which is not by any means unique in Oklahoma. However, the Arbuckle Mountains that this monuments sits upon is 100% some of the best limestone in the State. There is not one pebble of red sandstone within 30 miles of the site.
In his notes, Ehud Darling states he had the monolith brought to the site by enlisted cavalry personnel from Ft. Arbuckle, about a mile and a half to the north. And that entire mile and a half is uphill. Ft. Arbuckle was about 900 ft. above MSL and the hill IP occupies is almost 1050. I'd like to read the story about the wagon and mule team that dragged that behemoth rock up there. The only thing unique about the site is its proximity to Fort Arbuckle, where Darling and his crews were staying, and the fact that from the top of the hill you can see the horizon in a 360å¡ panorama, from about five (s) to twenty miles (n).
Darling came to Ft. Arbuckle pursuant to his contract to lay out the Indian Base Line & Meridian. He also performed a great deal of the exterior township work. I believe he chose that sandstone from the job he worked previously and knew he was going to use it for the Indian Territory survey. But how he got it there is a mystery that wasn't recorded.
You think of the stone first being set, then toppling, then being reset. Everything in the area theoretically begins right there........wherever right there happens to be.
Meanwhile we have a lively thread going concerning three-dimensional realities and nanometers as they pertain to geographic coordinates.
When you work with one set of crude realities it is a challenge to switch over to anal retentive mode. Although, I will admit to majoring in engineering because I enjoyed the challenges of physics and mathematics.
paden cash, post: 357577, member: 20 wrote: The monolith, some 2 foot square by 7 or 8 feet in length
Sheesh. I'd hate to be the one sitting against it eating a sandwich when it decided to topple over!
I've got your floating stone, although it's not a section corner it's a highway bound.
Initially while searching for this stone monument, my partner said, "There's a big rock in the way." I told her to go a couple feet away, and she said, "You gotta come see this." LOL 
It's lucky that opening fell in just the right place to welcome that highway bound.
Did it match record to the nearest nanometer?