Survey Marks???

[DHaze]

What does a Dash, upside down V , and another Dash (carved in rock) represent? I'm thinking early survey/stage road/trailmarkers? Not having much luck online searching survey symbols any links?
Thanks
DHaze

 

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[Bum Luck]

Surveyor here.

Not in my book. We mark the boundary itself with a rock, usually with an "X".

Don't ever move one, it's against the law; and don't look for treasure under or around them.

Must be one of the others. Could be Indian too.

 

[PYRATE]

Surveyor here.

Not in my book. We mark the boundary itself with a rock, usually with an "X".

Don't ever move one, it's against the law; and don't look for treasure under or around them.

Must be one of the others. Could be Indian too.

Are surveyors still marking corners with rocks?

Holy moly, if I could only tell you how many thousands of hours I've spent dealing with issues arising from poor corners on metes & bounds descriptions.
My favorites are the 50+ year old descriptions using stumps as corners

 

[Bum Luck]

Are surveyors still marking corners with rocks?

Holy moly, if I could only tell you how many thousands of hours I've spent dealing with issues arising from poor corners on metes & bounds descriptions.
My favorites are the 50+ year old descriptions using stumps as corners

No, of course not. But, they did plenty of that in the old days, and rocks last longer than wood posts or even thinner stakes. We're thankful when we find a stone, but like I say, "It pays to know where to dig". In other words, use your head before the shovel. Today we use iron for corners, and most states have a recording law. I have to say, what we do is obscure to most folks; it's a mixture of coordinate geometry and case law. A few lay people manage to understand it though.

Yup, you're right about old descriptions; they vex us too. Not all old time surveyors were good; some were downright awful. I can still remember a classic we had to do in school, it was a metes and bounds with about 15 legs of widely varying lengths, and a complete blow on one of them. Har!

Not only that, but most all areas don't have enough surveys to keep the boundaries perpetuated, so that's why you have trouble. No one likes to pay us to do that, but your land is usually the most expensive asset, and the ability to keep your boundaries straight declines with time, sometimes pretty fast.

 

[Jason in Enid]

What does a Dash, upside down V , and another Dash (carved in rock) represent? I'm thinking early survey/stage road/trailmarkers? Not having much luck online searching survey symbols any links?
Thanks
DHaze

It's likely that it's true meaning was only known to the person who made the mark.

 

[ABruce]

Might also mean that that there's Pirate Treasure buried 5 feet below those marks!

 

[DHaze]

@ Bum Luck
Checkmarks are survey marks correct? What do the square (seen alot divided in half) and triangle mean from a survey point of view. Found what I believe is a corner or line marker did not move but found metal ring with a few cold links on it under edge of it ring (lol) any bells. Bum Luck = lots of skills.
Thanks all and good luck
BTW down to 7 feet no treasure under marks!

 

[uglymailman]

Hey DHaze, where are you located?I did land survey work for 12 yrs. One of our jobs here in Missouri was to reestablish the section corners in 158 sections (one mile by one mile). This work was originally done over a 10 yr period 1840's-1850's by several different surveyors. We found about 2% of the original stones set. Many corners only had posts set. Surveyors got paid more for setting a stone than a post.
Some surveyors went to the trouble of putting a "1/4" on the stone to indicate a quarter corner. We even found one of those carved on backwards in Iowa. Figured the surveyor had someone illiterate put it on using a template. But the only markings having to do w/ lines was a line (or hash mark) cut on stone to indicate the number of miles (sections) up (north) from the bottom line of a Township (Here the description is Range North, Township West of the 5th Principal Meridian).
If you are back East where Metes and Bounds were used I have no idea. If West of the Mississippi you might check to see if you are 5 miles north of the bottom line of the township. In most cases that will be sections 7-13. Hope this helps.

 

[Bum Luck]

@ Bum Luck
Checkmarks are survey marks correct? What do the square (seen alot divided in half) and triangle mean from a survey point of view. Found what I believe is a corner or line marker did not move but found metal ring with a few cold links on it under edge of it ring (lol) any bells. Bum Luck = lots of skills.
Thanks all and good luck
BTW down to 7 feet no treasure under marks!

Don't know what "checkmarks" are; never heard the term. A triangle normally is used for a "control" station, or a mathematical point we use as a corner to set our instruments on when we run a traverse. That "control network" is only important to us internally as we go from point to point. It has evolved since the 1830-50 era of the original surveys around here, when the method was to 'set' their transits on the line they were running. Now, with the improvement in technology, we aren't tied to that line.

For a corner, surveyors being a practical lot, they would use what was handy when they got there; they'd grab a stone that was different, preferably one that when stood upright, was distinct from the others laying around. They'd generally mark it with an X, as I said. I've not found any other mark on a stone, and a lot of unmarked ones. It's possible that someone carved a "1/4", but only in a Public Land Survey state (one with sections).

They did use hash marks on the (around here) wood posts depicting the distance north and west of the Township corner, but again, the Deputy Surveyors' instructions from the Surveyor General around here were to use wood stakes, not stones. Stones were used in resurveys of the sections, later.

They were instructed to use and mark bearing trees as witnesses to the corner if it was lost, but not to rock, a curious thing to me since rock faces did not move, and trees were cut down or rotted away.

I've never seen a mark near a corner, like on a rock face, but have seen a lot of Indian petroglyphs of all shapes on rock faces. Triangles, squares, "turkey tracks", teepees, wavey lines - lots of them. I' m not saying it's not possible, since resurveyors (like county surveyors) had more latitude in their actions since they weren't bound by contracts.

Here's a link to a map of the PLSS states so you can see where you are:
Public Land Survey System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia