Today's project was in a section with plenty of negative items.?ÿ That is: rocks, locust trees, cedar trees, hedge trees. blackberry bushes, multiflora rose, every kind of ivy and all sorts of potentially bad critters from tarantulas to big carnivores and legless critters.?ÿ Some of the various corners were last found by a DOT surveyor in 1944.?ÿ The notes for the Center Corner where nearly illegible as they were written in pencil on a note card that has been handled many times in the past 77 years.?ÿ The best I could make out was that he had set a bar next to a charred stake and something by a fence corner.?ÿ We had recovered monuments at all of the other eight corners.?ÿ Calculated the midpoint of the east-west quarter section line.?ÿ Then calculated where the north-south quarter section line would intersect and found that to be within two inches of the first calculated point.?ÿ This fell in open pasture, about seven feet south of a fence that we had already assumed was not on line and about 66 feet east of an existing corner post.?ÿ Whipped out the yellar witchin' stick anyway and heard ZZZIIINNNGGG.?ÿ Grabbed the tool too many surveyors seem to NOT own and began digging.?ÿ Hit something solid immediately.?ÿ More careful digging revealed an upright stone.?ÿ On the west side of it was the stake.?ÿ On the west side of that was the half inch bar the 1944 surveyor had added to provide an iron signal.?ÿ We shot the center of the inch and a half by 18 inch stone.?ÿ The result was within one tenth of our calculated point.
You know the surveyor who set that stone, probably in the 1870's, did not have all the luxuries we possess today to work our way around a section.
I love those recovery stories. And, yes, I agree on the tool so many surveyors don't seem to own.?ÿ
?ÿ
It's nice to find stuff.
N
?ÿ
?ÿ
Compensating errors are a wonderful thing ;-)?ÿ?ÿ
kidding aside, great find.
Working on the Sabbath, Holy Cow? ?????ÿ
A beautiful story.
What is amazing is that some will even record a survey that says they didn't even bother to look.?ÿ
Rare.?ÿ Back in the 90's I worked mostly weekends in the field.?ÿ The only problem was with jobs in towns where EVERYBODY was home and they all not only sent a representative to see what we were doing but in EVERY case that person had done something related to surveying at some time earlier in life and had to share it with us.
(boys and girls, that is known as a run-on sentence)
a run-on sentence)
Long and complicated, but I don't think it is technically a run-on. That's where two complete sentences are put together without some relational word or semicolon to connect them.
"The Yeller Witching Stick"- have to remember that one... very nice?ÿ 😉
?ÿ
I still like the looks on people's faces when I actually call it's functional name: Fluxgate?ÿ magnetometer.
They are just blank.....
Question, "We shot the center of the inch and a half by 18 inch stone".?ÿ What kind of stones you have out there??ÿ
Really hard limestone.?ÿ It was surely thicker a foot deep.?ÿ ?ÿThis one has some smaller flat stones bracing it.?ÿ Mama Nature didn't put it there.
Here's a pic of this find.
On the left side of the hole is the bar placed in 1944 to assist future surveyors to find the small wood post/stob/stake to the right, which is tight against the center corner stone which has two smaller flat stones bracing it on the far right.?ÿ This is in open pasture about seven feet from a fence and about 70 feet from a fence corner.?ÿ The entire section has had a single owner for many, many years so the location of the fences did not matter.
