The Most Visible Aspect of Our Profession?

To take a contrary point of view: as important as the monument is, it is often not particularly visible. Probably the majority of property owners have never seen their monuments. How many lot corners or PLSS corners can you walk up to and point out to someone without a search or a shovel?

And you are quite lucky if the monument endures anywhere near as long as the plat or legal description (assuming recorded in the courthouse).

The Maps, Mr. Penry

The maps are where the artistry lies, or used to.
I hate CAD drawings that pass for maps. Engineering efforts that convey no more feeling than a mechanical drawing of a gasket.
Oh, monuments are important; in some respects, the most important product of all we do, but maps are what we really show the world what it is that we accomplish.
They should be beautiful and unique, with extravagent North Arrows and a profusion of intricate detail that conveys the passion of the Surveyor that created them.

Some may disagree. A man that would strip a North Arrow of its glory has no soul.

Don

What I think is the most visible aspect of our profession today is the view provided via Google Earth and similar services such that the common person can clearly see the ways in which boundary surveyors have assisted property owners, municipalities and others in structuring organization out of chaos. Straight lines, smooth curves, symmetry and planned asymmetry creating neat packets of real estate for proper use out of disorganized vast expanses.

I go with plat because if I have a legacy it will be found in the courthouse. And I hope 100 years from now when some surveyor finds one of my plats the first word out of his mouth isn't "DAM".

The tripod and surveyor at work is the most visible (recognize) aspect of our profession.

Look at the logo of surveyorconnect.com

The Maps, Mr. Penry

:good:

The use of GPS has now solved a lot of this, but if you needed a bench mark or a triangulation station, a map showing it would not help you unless you had the physical monument.

The same is probably true with many section corners now where all of them in my county now have a fixed position on them. Some surveyors are using this published data to break down sections without ever digging up or occupying the monuments. I have seen plats that have the exact distances and bearings that match our data. That is probably an issue to be discussed for another thread.

I also keep thinking of the failure of the GLO to furnish durable monuments in the original surveys. Nebraska had over 300 townships (10,000+ sections) resurveyed where iron pipes and brass caps were then placed. Many of the nice looking original plats are worthless because they are fictitious. One deputy even drew in lakes where they did not exist.

Some surveyors are using this published data to break down sections without ever digging up or occupying the monuments."

I cannot speak to this practice appropriately without the threat of being banned.

Don

The Maps, Mr. Penry

Ditto on a "proper" map. They are a true piece of artist, and hopefully accurate, work representing things as they are on the ground or water. Something like river banks and coast lines (in detail) indicating any thread so a boat captain can properly navigate. Or, the explorer has some idea what he's heading into.
The oldest maps, pre 1800 are cool to look at. I'll just sit and stare at them.

I would love to have my living room papered with very famous map.
Unfortunately I've only been able to find small replications. Not worthy of framing IMHO.
E

Edit: But thinking about a little more, surveyors (count me in that bunch although formerly). "We" aren't explorers as I would think a cartographer mapping the unknown would be - like Lewis and Clark or Wesley Powell or Henry Hudson. That's what I think of as a map maker. We "map" subdivisions, lots, engineering features like drainages and such and all other manner of stuff. But we're not building really cool maps, per se, to hang on the wall or sell to a king in need of battle plans.

I realize I'm likely to get my little boohiney (that'd be as$$$) busted for I imagine some may almost take that as blasphemous to say such.
My apologies up front.

We used to be known as "those guys that stand out in the middle of the road."

> Some surveyors are using this published data to break down sections without ever digging up or occupying the monuments."
>
> I cannot speak to this practice appropriately without the threat of being banned.

I don't think this can be so easily dismissed as illegitimate. If you have a plat prepared by a surveyor you know and trust -- it might even be yourself -- you're probably going to rely on that surveyor's monuments to form the basis of your survey. You could reinvent the wheel and remeasure everything he measured, but if you already know you're going to rely on his survey anyway, is that a good use of your client's money? What if you did remeasure everything you could find on the plat but found one monument missing. Aren't you likely to use the other surveyor's record dimensions to replace it? Is that any different from accepting his section breakdown and focusing only on the specific area of interest to your client?

This can, of course, be taken to a ridiculous extreme, but if I've retraced a section -- or a city block, for that matter -- in the past and I need to survey some further portion of same, I'm not going to repeat all the original work if I don't have to; I'm going to jump on my control and go. The same goes for a survey done by another reputable practitioner, in my opinion.

> I believe our profession leaves two distinct things for history - the drawing (plat) and the monument. Distances and directions would be included as part of the plat. The only other aspect I can think of is the legal description if creating a new parcel.

In Texas, the metes and bounds description is easily the most durable part of the surveyor's professional work. It's understood that boundary monuments will endure only as long as the fence builders don't tear them up and the utility contractors don't trench through them. Maps? Unless it's a subdivision plat, the map will end up in some file folder somewhere before a quick trip to the shredder or the landfill. The metes and bounds description will end up recorded in the County Clerk's Office for all interested to see, forever.

This is why it is best practice to write a discursive metes and bounds description rich with information that some future surveyor will want to know and be able to use.

:good:

:good:

The court cases and the situations leading up to the court cases.

Case in point, recently there have been some nation-wide reporting on houses being built on other persons lands. I'd say that qualifies as "visible".

Whether or not the surveyor is to blame in these high-profile disputes, the public's focus is on the necessity for accurate boundary determination.

The groupies - can't seem to survey anywhere without attracting crowds of attractive young women.

The Shedder?

"...the map will end up in some file folder somewhere before a quick trip to the shredder."

Good Lord! If that's the practice in Texas, conditions there are even more primitive than I had imagined.

Don

And coming in 2nd:

SurveyorConnect.com !!!

I've been surprised by clients who, before hiring a surveyor (me), had done some internet research on their boundary question, and ended up here and at some of the other surveyor discussion forums.

In the modern techno-age, this forum gets a lot more eyes than just those in the profession.