Pure foolishness
The world of surveying really did exist prior to the availability of GPS, Total Stations, GoogleEarth, certified corner reports, mandatory recording and metal detectors.
Yes, it really did. Therefore, the quick and dirty answers provided by any or all of those tools may give you incorrect information if you aren’t smart enough to understand the limitation of those supports.
One of the most egregious potential mistakes made by modern surveyors working in PLSSia, for example, is to obtain the most recently filed section corner report and assume it is the Gospel. There may be 20 such reports for that corner. What they report can vary quite a bit. They may actually be reporting three different locations based on the decisions of different surveyors. None of those locations may be the true corner as established by the first surveyor. That first monument, whether a wooden stake or stone may, in fact, still be where it was placed. It may have been missed or not even sought after by the first surveyor who came along and placed some other monument. Those who followed that sloppy surveyor have created other problems.
The same circumstances can easily exist outside of PLSSia.
What is drawn on a town plat, addition plat or subdivision plat and what was actually done are quite frequently two very different things. Those who have worked for many years can cite a long list of reasons to deviate from what the first liar put on paper. The second, third and fourth liars need to have their work judged closely as well. They may have all performed to the standard of the day which may not satisfy today’s world. So today’s world feels a need to “correct” their work despite thousands of court cases supporting what they did.
Surveyors should be seekers of truth. The truth does not always come easy. Diligence in research far outweighs diligence in measurement practices. Measuring very precisely to the wrong place is not the truth.
Log in to reply.