Why recording surveys is so very helpful

A specific surveyor who worked this area for many years was a good researcher and an excellent measurer. I followed one survey of his this week on a tract of just under 10 acres. Nothing disagreed more than one inch from where he put it (six bars). Less than three miles away I had another project that followed his work from about 30 years ago. Due to road work the front pins were gone, but the back pins were undisturbed and within 0.02' of the record distance apart. The initial problem was that they were 1.5 to 1.6 feet too far from the section line. The second problem was that the angle relative to the section line was not perpendicular as he had reported. But, when I pretended to shorten the side lines to their record distance, an amazing thing happened. The angle relative to that orientation of the front pins was an almost perfect ninety. Finally, the little light bulb over my head lit up.

This surveyor was famous for not wanting to record his surveys. He had apparently listened to surveyors in certain non-recording States and decided he would be sitting on a gold mine when he retired if no one had access to his decades of work. I am certain I know what happened in this case. About 25 years ago a huge, out-of-state, survey company blew through doing many miles of route survey work for a major realignment and renumbering of a few highways. The center line of that route is only a few hundred feet from the tract I am surveying. The west quarter corner monument is a very nice bar with aluminum cap placed during the route survey. It must be 2.3 feet west of whatever monument this old surveyor used prior to that time. They didn't use his monument because they never knew it existed and they slapped in a corner on a straight line and half distance between section corner monuments they should have found from multiple usage by several surveyors. There is no chance of finding his previous monument as it would have been torn out during construction.

So, I have a lovely survey that will drive certain title people nuts. They probably think I need to precisely follow the deed and ignore original monuments because the side lines are too long and clearly not at a right angle to the section line. They will not be able to comprehend that the section line today isn't where it was in the past. And to think, all of this could have been avoided had the first surveyor recorded his surveys like nearly everyone else at the time or if he, at least, had filed section corner reports as required at the time.

BTW, I am certain the back bars are in their original and undisturbed positions. No doubt at all.