First PLSS Mark Find

[+EdrickV]

Over the weekend I had a chance to search for one of the relatively few PLSS corners (a quarter section corner in this case) that is not in the middle of a road and which I figured I had a chance at getting to. This particular section corner is deep in private property, but it so happens that some family members own part of the property. (The mark would be at the Southeast corner of their property.) I originally had an idea to go to a spot along the East side of their property that I knew of (marked by an old fence) and head South to the corner, but do to the route I took and some relatively modern paths I actually found my way to a point at the East border South of the area I'd planned, and I realized there that going straight South wouldn't be much of an option. So I took a different route to a spot I knew would be closer and found a pathway that got me a lot closer then I'd expected, with evidence that someone from the family had actually been out near if not to the mark. But, between my smartphone and a cheap compass I bought a while ago I managed to find the mark pretty easily. The mark had been remonumented in 2002, and the info I had came from that visit. (Michigan started a program in 1990 to remark all the section corners in the state, and put the info from the visits online in a format somewhat like a datasheet.

 

Here is some of the info I had to go on: (besides GPS coordinates calculated via a web page from the PLSS grid location)

 

Description of corner evidence found and/or method applied in restoring or reestablishing corner:

Found 1/2" rebar 3" high on West face 14" wood corner post.

 

Description of monument for corner and accessories established to perpetuate locating the position of the corner:

Accepted rebar at corner remains of old fence N/S and set Remonumentation Monument over it as best evidence available of the position of the original corner.

 

N 77 W 26.27' Set 60d & Remon tag above 16d S side 6" Ash.

N 13 E 4.18' Set 60d & Remon tag above 16d W side 8" Poplar with Blaze.

S 15 W 29.77' Set 60d & Remon tag above 16d E side 14" Ash with Blaze.

S 48 W 73.05' Set 60d & Remon tag above overgrown nail NW side 10" Dead White Birch.

 

The section above with the "60d" nails is a list of witness marks placed to help re-find the corner if the main monument gets destroyed/lost. I didn't use the witness mark info from before the 2002 remonumentation, since the last known visit was in 1974. I also didn't search for the 4th of the witness marks, since that was some distance into the neighboring property and I didn't see any sign of the tree from the mark.

 

Pictures of the mark below. I had a water bottle with me, so I poured a bit on the mark to make it more legible for the camera. According to a picture of the mark, the rebar found in 2002 and apparently placed in 1974 is inside the new monument.

 

[+EdrickV]

I was a little surprised to find out there was a witness post here, but it was pretty cool to discover and did help me locate the mark quicker, though it wouldn't have been hard even without the witness post. Note the old fence post and fence wire (dating at least to 1974) is still there.

 

North view:

 

South view:

 

East view:

[+EdrickV]

These are the three witness marks I found nearby and pics of the two trees with blazes that two of the witness marks are on.

 

And yes, there is a hunting blind to the East, as well as one to the South that doesn't show up in the pictures. (The Eastern neighbor would have had a much easier time getting here then I did, the mark is at the corner of a field.)

[southpawaz]

Good find, thanks for sharing your photos. I don't recall what kind of GPSr you use, but I use a Garmin format PLSS overlay available from GPSFileDepot that usually will put me within 30 feet of a corner. Here's one I found last weekend:

 

 

T13N R15 E, S17 S18 S19 S20, Gila and Salt River Meridian.

 

And it's blazed and scribed bearing tree:

 

[+EdrickV]

At the moment I'm using a Windows Mobile 6.1 AT&T Tilt smartphone with the Cachebox Geocaching program. It uses OSM map tiles and would not use a Garmin overlay map. (I'm thinking about getting an Etrex 30 in the Fall/Winter though.) I also sometimes use a Garmin Nuvi for Geocaching/Benchmark hunting, though I've yet to use it for PLSS marks. I do have MapSource & Basecamp though so I will take a look at that map overlay.

 

I originally downloaded PLSS grid shapefiles for my state and converted them to KML files so I could have a PLSS grid overlay in Google Earth, and that works pretty well, though with the whole state's grid up it slows down when zoomed out. Unfortunately GE's usefulness is limited when without internet and I can't put it on my phone.

 

I then tried to make a database of possible PLSS locations for my phone by converting the KML file to CSV, the CSV to LOC, and importing into GSAK. However the state wide file seems to be too big for GSAK. So I tried just doing one county and managed to do it. (Over 4000 possible locations in my county alone.) However not all those locations may actually have a PLSS mark. (I believe the waypoints created by this method include every intersection of lines from the grid, but some of the intersections may not actually be section corners/quarter section corners but intersections where the grid was subdivided into smaller sections.

 

Before I used that info to actually go out and look for markers, I found out that there's an online database for my state where the remonumentation project data is stored and that has proven to be a far better location reference tool since it doesn't just say where marks are, but what they are and what kind of witness marks are near them. (Even though I'm not totally sure how you read the witness mark direction/distance info.) Interestingly, the original description for a lot of these section corners use ancient measurement standards that I didn't know existed before, like Chains, Links, and Rods. The newer descriptions usually use more modern standards.

 

Here are links to the "Land Corner Recordation Certificate" pages for the two corners that mark the beginning points of the Michigan PLSS grid. The monuments there are rather impressive compared to normal. (The grids don't quite line up east/west of the Meridian so there are two monuments, one to the North, one to the South, and both within a unique undeveloped and land-locked state park.)

 

North:

http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/remon/dt_image.asp?remon_index=01S01EA0120041206&directory=01S01E

 

South: (2 pages)

http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/remon/dt_image.asp?remon_index=01N01WM1320071106&directory=01N01W

 

Since the info sheets above are really just TIFF images, to get that info into GSAK I end up having to type it in, so I don't copy all the data just the data I think will be useful to find the mark, and I print the sheet out so I can have the full info with me. (Some of the sheets I've seen have drawings of how the monument was found and how it was remonumented.)

 

The one thing these sheets don't have is GPS coordinates, and that's where this website comes in handy:

http://www.earthpoint.us/TownshipsSearchByDescription.aspx

 

The website that got me started on all this (and where I believe the data for your overlay map came from) is here:

http://www.geocommunicator.gov/GeoComm/lsis_home/home/

 

There are a few PLSS marks that are in parks and, assuming I can locate them, I may turn them into Waymarks so others can find them too.

[CallawayMT]

Edrik,

 

The PLSS data that you are getting from the Geocommunicator website is created using Geographic Coordinate Data Base (GCDB) software. This software uses the historical GLO and BLM record information and coordinate geometry for creating a least squares estimate for all of the PLSS data across the country. When you download the shapefile you are getting all of the 1/16, 1/4, section, meander, mineral and other special survey corner locations along with line intersections; so you are getting a lot of extraneous corner locations which were never monumented, but they still have a corner location. The thing to remember in surveying, is that a corner (a record or calculated position) is created upon survey, but a monument(which is a physical object) was not necessarily placed at every corner location.

 

Some state BLM offices supply the GCDB flat files which can be manipulated using WinGMM and other softwares to clean out all of the extraneous (un-monumented) PLSS positions. Here is a good place to look for software if you want to experiment with PLSS data: Kurt Wurm GCDB Software

In Montana I use his LX2GPSX software all the time to create a quick search file for handheld or even survey data collectors by township and I can run the raw data through GMM to clean out all the extra corners I don't want to load. If I want to visually see the PLSS grid on the Garmin receiver, I have also downloaded the shapefile as you have been doing and convert that to a track or route to load on the units.

 

When I have been out across the country for work and pleasure, locating the PLSS initial points has been a hobby of mine and last week I went to my 17th initial point at the Fairbanks Intial Point in Alaska. I visited the Michigan marks back in 2006 and they have been fanciest remonumentation of any I have been to, unfortunately they remain difficult to get to. You can see my post and photos for them here: Michigan Intial Points

 

I haven't looked at Michigan, but many states and counties across the US do have websites where the PLSS corner monument Corner Perpetuation or Certification Records created by Professional Land Surveyors are stored and available to view which would tell you what the monument is and information to find it. You are correct in the fact that there are many publicly accessible monuments located throughout the US to find, always remember to leave them as you find them for the publics best interest.

 

Kurt

 

At the moment I'm using a Windows Mobile 6.1 AT&T Tilt smartphone with the Cachebox Geocaching program. It uses OSM map tiles and would not use a Garmin overlay map. (I'm thinking about getting an Etrex 30 in the Fall/Winter though.) I also sometimes use a Garmin Nuvi for Geocaching/Benchmark hunting, though I've yet to use it for PLSS marks. I do have MapSource & Basecamp though so I will take a look at that map overlay.

 

I originally downloaded PLSS grid shapefiles for my state and converted them to KML files so I could have a PLSS grid overlay in Google Earth, and that works pretty well, though with the whole state's grid up it slows down when zoomed out. Unfortunately GE's usefulness is limited when without internet and I can't put it on my phone.

 

I then tried to make a database of possible PLSS locations for my phone by converting the KML file to CSV, the CSV to LOC, and importing into GSAK. However the state wide file seems to be too big for GSAK. So I tried just doing one county and managed to do it. (Over 4000 possible locations in my county alone.) However not all those locations may actually have a PLSS mark. (I believe the waypoints created by this method include every intersection of lines from the grid, but some of the intersections may not actually be section corners/quarter section corners but intersections where the grid was subdivided into smaller sections.

 

Before I used that info to actually go out and look for markers, I found out that there's an online database for my state where the remonumentation project data is stored and that has proven to be a far better location reference tool since it doesn't just say where marks are, but what they are and what kind of witness marks are near them. (Even though I'm not totally sure how you read the witness mark direction/distance info.) Interestingly, the original description for a lot of these section corners use ancient measurement standards that I didn't know existed before, like Chains, Links, and Rods. The newer descriptions usually use more modern standards.

 

Here are links to the "Land Corner Recordation Certificate" pages for the two corners that mark the beginning points of the Michigan PLSS grid. The monuments there are rather impressive compared to normal. (The grids don't quite line up east/west of the Meridian so there are two monuments, one to the North, one to the South, and both within a unique undeveloped and land-locked state park.)

 

North:

http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/remon/dt_image.asp?remon_index=01S01EA0120041206&directory=01S01E

 

South: (2 pages)

http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/remon/dt_image.asp?remon_index=01N01WM1320071106&directory=01N01W

 

Since the info sheets above are really just TIFF images, to get that info into GSAK I end up having to type it in, so I don't copy all the data just the data I think will be useful to find the mark, and I print the sheet out so I can have the full info with me. (Some of the sheets I've seen have drawings of how the monument was found and how it was remonumented.)

 

The one thing these sheets don't have is GPS coordinates, and that's where this website comes in handy:

http://www.earthpoint.us/TownshipsSearchByDescription.aspx

 

The website that got me started on all this (and where I believe the data for your overlay map came from) is here:

http://www.geocommunicator.gov/GeoComm/lsis_home/home/

 

There are a few PLSS marks that are in parks and, assuming I can locate them, I may turn them into Waymarks so others can find them too.

[+EdrickV]

The PLSS data for my county (and in fact most of my state) does not come from the BLM but from alternate sources. And while I did download those programs, they don't seem to have anything to do with the PLSS data that I have, which are ESRI shapefiles of the PLSS grid. In any event, I'm not actually using that one converted file anyways. (The one I eventually converted from Shapefile to GPX.) What I am doing is using the PLSS grid data (either the KML conversion of the shapefile in Google Earth, or via Geocommunicator interactive map) to find potential places to look up in the remonumentation database to verify the existence of a monument in accessible areas.

 

At this time, I'm not terribly worried about looking for PLSS marks in other states, (unless they're waymarks) though I wouldn't mind checking out the reference monument for the Beginning Point of the U.S. Public Land Survey, which is on the Ohio/Pennsylvania border and has it's own Wikipedia entry, complete with coordinates:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beginning_Point_of_the_U.S._Public_Land_Survey

 

Probably be a long time before I'd have a chance to go there though.

Edited June 2, 2012 by EdrickV