The scent of pink sumac

It's leaf turning season finally and the weather is warm and sunny. It is truly beautiful surveying weather. In the afternoon my morning jacket winds up behind the truck seat (with all the others). A mile or two jaunt through the woods and meadows will make you feel alive.

I'm working on a large survey that sits in three sections, on both sides of a standard parallel. And all the section lines are closed. I did a job in the area six or seven years ago and all the owners keep calling me back when they buy or sell. I love it.

There are numerous existing corners in there, right where the guys left them in 1874. As in a number of other 140 year old surveys I've retraced, they pencil-whipped the numbers a little when they 'closed' on the parallel. But all in all the corners wound up in very predictable locations. I love this kind of work.

I found a corner this morning, the NE of sec. 6. The notes are a little ambiguous because in 1874 they never really 'closed' on a line. Their "Closing Corner" was merely set and referenced. If they noted a distance east or west to a regular corner set for the township to the north it was usually a calc'd distance, in my opinion. They never really work out real well.

Anyway, this corner is a stone that was probably approximately the size called for in the notes, but it has been sheared in two pieces. A large axle shaft has been driven in the ground about 0.25' west of the stone. I excavated the entire stone (both pieces) and there is NO markings, hashes or grooves at all. This would have been a closing corner, although I haven't yet sifted through all the notes to see exactly what they did back then. It is not uncommon around here for the Closing Corner to be perpetuated as the actual section corner. After 140 years, who's gonna argue?

Far as I'm concerned, it's the corner. The tractor axle stands as a testament that someone else thought so, too. The numbers all look good to all the other corners. If I actually "closed" on the parallel, the corner would only be 3 to 5 feet south...not bad at all. Sorry I didn't have a camera with me. I have a habit of leaving my cell phone in the truck.

It's a beautiful time of year to trot through the woods and dig holes. Everybody needs to get out and enjoy the weather before it turns nasty.

"Come ahead"...and enjoy the day. B-)