Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
For the monument to be controlling it must be Called-For in the record
information.
It is important to realize that a call in a deed for a monument is not actually a call
for the monument itself; it is a call for the
location
of the monument. This makes
sense if one considers how easy it is for original monuments to become disturbed.
For example, a stone bound set in the woods could be tipped over or upended by a
falling tree. A drill hole in a stone wall could be moved by a person rebuilding the
wall. Monuments like iron pipes or rebars are easily pulled out of the ground and
moved. Merely finding an original monument is not enough. The surveyor must
determine that the monument has not been disturbed. In actual practice, many old
monuments show signs of having been disturbed.
The surveyor must be experienced and knowledgeable in monument identifica-
tion and scrutinize a found monument in order to determine if it is indeed the orig-
inal monument. This is a situation where there is no substitute for experience on
the part of the surveyor. It is an example of a skill that cannot be perfected without
considerable exposure to field work. Experience and familiarity with the practices
and customs of local surveyors, perhaps long deceased, is essential.
Some examples may help to illustrate the point. A concrete bound is not a stone
bound. Sometimes the two appear deceptively similar, particularly when the bound
is buried under 3 feet of fill and the surveyor is peering into a dark hole with a flash-
light with water seeping in faster than the surveyor can bail it out. A copper pin in
a stone is not the same as a brass pin in a stone, even though oxidation over many
years makes it look much the same and it appears to be at the correct location (Fig.
11.1
). Three hack marks in a white oak tree are not the same as three hack marks in
a black oak tree. Surveyors must be experts at plant identification. Sometimes the
cavity left by a small stone falling out of a conglomerate stone looks very much like
a drill hole. In this case, you would probably ask yourself why anyone would put a
drill hole in a conglomerate stone in the first place, knowing that it would be almost
impossible to recover it with certainty at a later time. If a deed written in 1815 calls
for the corner to be a wooden fence post what is the probability that a fence post
found in 2012 is the same post? Unless it happens to be in an extremely arid climate,
in all likelihood the original post rotted out long ago.
One must never discount the possibility that the record information has described
a monument incorrectly. This occurs more often than one might imagine. In such
cases, a boundary surveyor needs to think like a sleuth. Being familiar with Sherlock
Holmes mysteries sometimes helps to instill the necessary level of inquisitiveness.
As an example, in a survey performed by the author, the current typed deed called
for the property line to begin a certain fixed distance northerly from a “wall”. The
property owner inherited the property from his parents and the family had lived on
the land for many years. When asked about the location of the wall, the property
owner stated that, to his knowledge, no wall had ever existed at that location. An ini-
tial site investigation disclosed no visible evidence that a wall had ever existed there.
