What's the Point?

Here is a section of the layout where we are working on a boundary. It is in a book of plans archived from the County Commissioners. Presently they cannot be copied and I was allowed to photograph them. There is a plan in the works to scan the layouts at a local university as they are always at risk of being damaged.

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I see this is only a few miles from New Hampshire, as the crow flies.?ÿ Getting there by auto adds a fair amount of distance, percentagewise.

Where is the cemetery located with respect to the second map?

@holy-cow?ÿ

We are near New Hampshire. Tully is a village, so named because of the mountain of the same name that is nearby.?ÿ

The cemetery is in the photograph of stone 38. It is behind the black fence.

Perhaps the caretakers are the reason stone 38 is preserved.?ÿ

?ÿStone 39 has its number carved in the top like stone 38. The three is under the lichens that we didn't want to scrape off.?ÿ

Stone 40 has an unusual plug in the front face unlike the others. It may have been a recycled fence post, or maybe it's the point.

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I see the cemetery is a bit north-northwest of the intersection in an aerial view.?ÿ Why is there a section way back far from the road and to the right??ÿ Was that a part of the original tract?

The road monuments are on the east side in this county. We are working on a boundary that is on the other side. Perhaps you can post the aerial photograph.

Better yet.?ÿ Here is the lat/long so anyone can explore on their own.

LAT 42.63976

LONG -72.25052

Here's how I found it.?ÿ By finding the route from Royalston, MA to Tully, MA.?ÿ Then zooming in, followed by adding the layers level.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Royalston,+Massachusetts/Tully,+Orange,+MA+01364/ @42.638453,-72.2502694,707m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x89e1425fc3d23985:0x22b93e046582a58e!2m2!1d-72.1878604!2d42.6775856!1m5!1m1!1s0x89e1415b335d251d:0xa57b9d925d4d1fb2!2m2!1d-72.2481392!2d42.6375861!3e0

hope this helps

@dave-karoly?ÿ

I saw that too! Looks like a delicate dimple or a mark that some other surveyor made.

Some stones are drawn on the map to indicate the center of the back face is the mark.

Occasionally surveyors will mark these otherwise blank stones in the center anyway.

Unfortunately the 1894 map shows a tick mark at the stone's location and not a symbol.?ÿ

@dave-karoly?ÿ

I didn't notice the one Dave pointed out, but it looked to me like there's dimple pretty well centered between the 3 & the 8.

I believe you are in the time frame when the county surveyors in Mass. generally set the stones with the center back at the "point".

@peter-lothian?ÿ

Thank you. I had thought that might be the case here. We will still get the corners just to test the thought. It's too bad the county surveyors are gone now. I always had a good time listening to their stories.?ÿ

Great find.?ÿ As Peter Lothian said, I'd lean toward holding back center for road stones.?ÿ Center for stones not on a road.

@jph?ÿ

Thank you.

Been a while since I've recovered stone monuments but usually they're decades to hundreds of years old and I'm overjoyed to find one.?ÿ Where exactly is the point if not obvious by chiseled marks I judge as the center of mass exposed. Gotta have provenance concerning dimensions, composition, era and hopefully a described chisel mark (at a minimum an "X").?ÿ Not every stone you dig up is a monument.?ÿ

We all must realize when stones were set in rural areas +- 10' foot or more (100'?) was acceptable and if big enough no farm equipment is gonna move them.?ÿ Sorry if mathemagical calculations say they're wrong, they hold as original.?ÿ In the '70s I set a few original PLSS monuments by transit and slope taping where my "error analysis" was +-20' but the monument is a star drill chiseled hole with a brass pin pounded in to to exposed bedrock with proper refences. Should last for millennia.?ÿ Don't any of you dare claim it's not the original corner. ?????ÿ