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A Dirt Road Nobody Deeded, and a Title Company That Noticed
An old family path on a 2015 plat has a title company asking who can use it — and the thread can't agree on what governs. Plus Trimble and Azimuth open up shop, and three deadlines.
First issue under the new format: the forum leads now, outside news comes in when there is some, and this lands Thursdays with the email Friday morning. Here’s the whole explanation.
Nothing much moved on the regulatory side this week, so the forum carried the issue — which is roughly what this redesign was betting on. The thread below is one day old and already past 1,300 views.
Also: the America 250 celebration in Deadwood runs Sunday through Tuesday, with Monday the day of commemoration at Mount Rushmore. NSPS says they’ll be posting reports from Deadwood through the week.
On the Boards
A dirt road nobody deeded
firestix posted a 2015 plat with a yellow-highlighted “Old Unpaved Road” — a path the original family cut between two houses, back before the tract became seven lots — and a title company now says it will likely except it from coverage. His read is that the road is a topo feature like the ditch beside it, that the easements actually conveying rights are already drawn and referenced on the plat, and that relabeling it “Old PRIVATE Road” might be enough to move things along.
The thread can’t agree on what governs. lurker reads the road as evidence of use that may have ripened into prescriptive rights, or may have expired. Norman_Oklahoma counters that permissive use defeats a prescriptive claim outright, and that a road’s presence is one element of such a claim and a long way from proof. MightyMoe points to an easement running from the old road through Tract 5 to a ditch, which in his state carries statutory protection he calls as solid as it gets. holy-cow’s answer is Lincoln’s: calling a cow’s tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.
Two questions neither the plat nor the thread has settled. If the road is grown over, do you still show it? And does the label you pick change anything that matters?
Also open
- When a fence disagrees with your math, what goes on the plat? — Strictly Surveying
- FEMA Flood Zone A adjacent to a Zone AE? — Strictly Surveying
- OPUS Weirdness with Ortho Hgts — Software, CAD & Mapping
- Lying under oath — Business, Finance & Legal
Reading is free. Replying takes a membership — that’s here.
Industry News
Monopoly has a surveying edition. Get Kids Into Survey is producing MONOPOLY: Surveying Edition, a limited run of 5,000 boards with properties named for the work — Satellite Positioning Technology, LiDAR System Maintenance, Professional Survey Services, Surveyor Training Day. Twenty-five geospatial firms are behind it, NSPS among the organizations supporting it. Pre-orders are open. No price or ship date is posted yet, and the shop defaults to pounds sterling, so check the currency before you order.
Vendor Forums
Trimble Business Center has its own room now. Joe Blecha opened it this week as a direct channel for workflow questions, and kicked off with the updated 21-day TBC free trial — worth a look whether you’re on a legacy perpetual license, weighing subscription options, or evaluating TBC for the first time. Say hello.
Azimuth Education added Arizona and Colorado. Both states now have question banks, flashcards, and Statute Binders, and this release swaps out the temporary fixes for permanent ones. Details.
From the Blog
Passkeys and 2-step verification are now on RPLS.com — both are live on your account security tab. Pick one.
On the Calendar
- October 18–20, 2026 — NSPS America 250th Celebration, Deadwood, South Dakota. Monday the 19th is the day of commemoration at Mount Rushmore. Registration has closed.
- December 11, 2026 — NFIP authorization expires at 11:59 p.m. The September 2 extension carried it this far; Congress has to act again. FEMA’s own page cites a National Association of Realtors estimate that a lapse would touch roughly 1,300 property sales a day.
- January 13, 2027 — NGS submission deadline. All OPUS Projects and differential leveling submissions for creating or updating geodetic control in the current NSRS must be in by this date.
- February 23–25, 2027 — Geo Week, Salt Palace, Salt Lake City.
Two weeks left on the Photo Contest
Entries for the 2027 RPLS.com wall calendar close October 31. Twelve get printed, one makes the cover. If you’ve got a shot of a crew working in weather nobody should be working in, that’s the one. Enter here.
Closing the Traverse
A surveyor labeled something “Old Unpaved Road” on a plat in 2015. 11 years later, a title company is making decisions about somebody’s closing because of it.
He didn’t think twice about it. He was describing dirt, not raising a question.
Everything we letter gets read eventually, usually by someone with a stake in reading it a particular way, and often long after we’re around to explain what we meant. That’s not a reason to letter less. It’s a reason to letter on purpose.
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