[holy-cow]

Any idea the age of that iron rod?  Adding anything in the form of identification has not always been a requirement in most places.  We use uncapped rods/bars/axles/railroad spikes/etc. all the time as reliable monuments when we apply the remainder of the knowledge we have acquired to the situation.

[Mark Mayer]

@postaldelays
I’m not a Pennsylvania registrant, but if this was in Oregon, Washington State, or Oklahoma it could absolutely be a valid property monument. Iron rods will commonly outlast plastic caps by decades. This is not me saying that this iron rod is a corner monument. Sometimes an iron rod in the garden is just an iron rod. Without the cap it becomes more difficult to identify a particular iron rod as being the one called for in a deed or on a map. But having the cap fall off and go missing does not render the monument invalid.

Also – rods that were set more than about 50 yrs ago rarely had caps in the first place.

[bill93]

I know nothing of actual practice in PA, but I found this on line suggesting the iron should be identified in some manner.

https://www.psls.org/pamanual

Manual of Practice for Professional Land Surveyors in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as adopted by the Pennsylvania Society of Land Surveyors

6.1 b) Identification

1) Markers found or set should be conspicuous to anyone that has reason to look for them, and identified as boundary markers.

2) The practitioner who placed the markers should be identifiable by inspection of the markers in the field.

Commentary:

6.1(b)(2) A metal or plastic cap with the surveyorƒ??s name and license number (or other means of identification as they become available) will meet this standard.

---

.

[PostalDelays]

Thank you kindly, Bill93.

[beartow]

The only reliable way to determine it’s authenticity is to ‘survey it in’. By comparing it to the other property corners and deeds, can you be comfortable with it’s provenance. As the other guys have stated, many types of monumentation have been used over the years and that alone will not determine it’s validity as the actual property corner.

[PostalDelays]

To answer holy cow’s question, it was placed in October of 2019 (without required moumentation identification standards of the Pennsylvania Society of Land Surveyors).

[thebionicman]

This is where local knowledge may save you a bundle. The characteristics of a ‘pin’ may point to an era, a development or even a specific surveyor. Long-time owners may also be able to provide information that helps determine the history of the monument. At some point measurements will come into play, but they aren’t the end all by any means. A Professional will be able to walk you through all of this.

[nate-the-surveyor]

As others have stated, it can be. But, the criteria of determination is not a cap, or the lack thereof. As a land owner, it’s handy to know. It’s not a hostile act, to want to know if it is the corner. The only way to really know, is probably to hire a surveyor. (This is not self promotion).

However, if your lot is small, you may be able to buy a 100 foot tape, at the hardware store, and come up with your own semi educated guess, if it’s reasonable. If it’s reasonable, drop it. If it’s not reasonable, then hire a surveyor. But, if you do determine that it’s reasonable, it could still be wrong. And, if it’s wrong, and time passes, it could allow your neighbor legal rights, to a “wrong corner”. That is, the statute of limitations, ie, adverse possession could come into play.

(Google that).

In any case, it could be a proper corner for another lot, but not for your land.

Many possibilities here.

Do you change your own oil in your car? If you do, you cannot sue a garage, if they fail to do it properly.

It’s your land, and your car. Your choice.

Thanks for coming by, and asking.

Maybe you could quiz your neighbor, to see why he thinks it’s the corner. He may have a plat, or map, and a 100′ hardware store tape!

🙂

Nate

[dave-karoly]

I asked a friend who is licensed in Pennsylvania. He says tags or other markings are not required.

So the rod if set by a Land Surveyor probably meets the requirements.

[john-hamilton]

As a PA PLS, I can attest that it is very common in PA to find uncapped rods or rebars, or wood stakes, or nothing at all for corners. While there is a manual of practice in PA (https://www.psls.org/pamanual), it is not a requirement, merely a recommendation.

I would say in my area it is more common to find an uncapped metal rod than one with a PLS number on it. Or nothing at all.  

[PostalDelays]

@john-hamilton

Thank you all for your input. As you can see, I am a layperson who never posted here before. Surveying is quite a mysterious profession to people like me, so this forum provides a valuable resource.

[Big D]

Sometimes you will find a “pin cushion” with various previous surveyor “opinions” placing their pins in proximity to each other…. Surveying is only mysterious because of how it is practiced. If all you are doing is “staking out” a deed based on the legal description, any or all opinions can emerge. If you want to know what you actually own, it requires research back to the original surveyor, walking in his shoes, and what the original intent was. Over time things seem to drift…. like a road right of way can be arbitrarily widened over time but each succeeding surveyor will “adjust” to the current change and reset a new corner rather than dig through the history of when did the right of way change? It is all time intensive and time is money…. pins, deeds and opinions dont prove what you really own. Just makes it all the more mysterious….

[PostalDelays]

@big-d-2
Mysterious indeed. If I were a surveyor, which I am not, and I did an original survey this August of 2020 but kept lousy records and then I died, 150 years from now the puzzle would get whispered down the lane (as if in a Tower of Babel). With the natural territorial instinct and human tendency to percieve the square feet to your advantage as much as plausible, I would think “cherry picking” for favorable opinions would transpire over the course of the years after the original inhabitants of the land pass away. After all, nobody is doing an audit etched in stone. It’s merely a series of opinions, and it’s feasible that these opinions would be driven by terrirotiality and “cherry picking” for opinions in these “pin cushions”. I guess it’s like democracy; it’s not perfect, but it’s the best we have. With all due respect to the profession, feel free to correct me on my cynicism.

[Big D]

If you are in a metes and bounds type of system where original boundaries were set by the very hard work of dragging chains and cutting paths to produce a line, they would literally set the corners in stone. Some call it the stone to tree system. Since so much work was involved in the running of lines, the goal of all owners of land from that time to today was to “perpetuate, inspect and maintain” those corners. The metes and bounds system eliminated the need for future surveys (they were way too hard and difficult before modern equipment). IF ONLY the property owners would mutually keep at each conveyance enforcing those original corners, no one would really care about the length of a line or direction, etc. Many errors were made because no one would go and measure a line when they had a huge well marked tree and an unusual surveyor set stone to look at! How things have changed…..