> I'm surprised your state doesn't have some kind of minimum standards for monumentation. I would hope that the monument is, at a minimum, uniquely identifiable, and reasonably durable. A nail just doesn't seem adequate to me.
MSOP states that monument is supposed to be marked with surveyor or company number, but that is widely ignored. In any case a nail with a washer meets MSOP.
Here is a snippet from my new favorite. Same job.
This witness point is over 500 feet from the corner. The corner MAYBE falls in a creek (probably not, according to Google Earth) which is maybe 100' top of bank to top of bank, and is probably a dry channel most of the year. Doesn't show measurements to the corners he DP'd from.
RRS mini pincushion
I once came across a railroad spike with seven, count 'em, seven punch marks in it. I couldn't believe my eyes.
RRS mini pincushion
Maybe it was a woodpecker with an iron deficiency.:-D
RRS mini pincushion
😀
Volvo stone finder
Our county highway dept charges my department for machine time. I can't remember any hole costing more than $300. I feel its money very well spent whether we find something or not. If we don't, I can (and do) document that fact so those following me at least knew we looked. I understand that your current administration or policy might not allow for digging but that attitude could change someday and then somebody will dig. Or future ground penetrating radar may be improved to a point where we can economically see the stone or post down there without digging. Like looking at a real-time ultrasound and seeing the babies toes and nose. Hard to predict that kind of technolgy but I don't think we should say it will never happen - and then we'll ( I'm sure I missed some stones!) see the stone over there and the pipe over here... 🙂 and start the never ending discussion on which one is right.
(yes, I posted this picture earlier in a different thread but it seems appropriate here also)
Volvo stone finder
:good:
Wow. That is great. It would be nice if the hwy dept could help everytime you need to dig in the highway. I would be a bit concerned about digging up the very stone your trying to find in place, though.
Volvo stone finder
You learn to be very patient and move small amounts of soil at a time. Lots of raking with the bucket teeth instead of gouging outs chunks of soil. Listening is very, very important.
Another heavy duty stone finder
Here's a link to a thread I posted shortly after this site was started:
http://beerleg.com/index.php?mode=thread&id=1715
Volvo stone finder
The machine normally comes with a 6' wide ditching bucket with a smooth edge, no teeth and a good operator. A good operator can scrape an inch at a time and usually, if he hits the stone doing this, the bucket just rides up over the stone, making a 'teeth grinding' type of noise. The day we dug the one in that picture (just last week) new operator showed up with toothed bucket but was very careful AND SLOW! He did dislodge this stone a bit but it was very easy to tell how much it moved so I just tipped it back to where it was. Its really nice to have a cooperative highway department - and it helps that our Highway Commissioner is a Land Surveyor!
He happened to show up a few minutes before we found this stone.
Another heavy duty stone finder
Great story! I missed it originally - thanks for bringing to to my attention.