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Deward Bowles
Posts: 15
Location: Houston, Harris
Joined: 3/29/2009
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Pin Cushions |
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BlackWatch mentioned "pin cushions" as his favorite subject.
My take is that there are many reasons for this and part of it has to do with the local practice. I think the problem has been made out as worse by some than it really is.
I would say the vast majority of "pin cushions" occur because there is not enough of a search made for evidence by Land Surveyors retracing a description. For example a Land Surveyor sends a field crew to the subject tract which locates evidence but does not find anything at some of the corners. They are then sent back out to stake these missing corners and simply drive a marker near another marker they never found.
I think another large factor is some of the so called "monuments" found near property corners are simply "goat stakes", never intended to be the marker. For example, there are several "iron rods" near one of my property corners. They were driven there to keep the dog from digging under the fence, not to mark the corner.
Local practice and theory are another major factor. In a State like Texas, where Land Surveyors were not required to mark corners they set with tags until a few years ago evidence is a critical issue.
This problem is compounded by how evidence in descriptions are perpetuated here. Some Land Surveyors subscribe to a theory that a new description should be written each and every time a new survey is performed without mention of what was called for in previous descriptions of the same property. Often surveys here are not recorded in any fashion, in other cases they are. Still other Land Surveyors think that if some evidence is found near the corner in question and they not agree with it's location that it should be removed so as not to create confusion when a new corner is set. These factors lead to a condition where you can never be certain of the pedigree of the evidence you are looking at.
I try and report all the evidence I find or set near the corner in question and I do not remove any of it. I DO NOT write "new" descriptions as a result of a survey I have performed but merely insert what I set or found within the existing description, making it clear within the description that I inserted these items. We typically visit a site at least 3 times and make at least 3 searches for evidence before I arrive at a conclusion. A cursory search is made on the first visit for evidence. On the second trip a deliberate search is made for evidence at computed locations. On the third trip a final search is made at the corner before a new marker is set. Only then do I release the survey.
Many may have different ideas on this subject and suggest I am a "pin cushioner" and that the resulting surveyed descriptions are "messy" or "wrong". That is fine, we all have our opinions, however this was how I was trained and to be quite honest my logic behind this is not something I casually arrived at or follow simply because I was "told" to do it that way.
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Sunday, May 03, 2009 at 12:52:01 PM |
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Deward Bowles
Posts: 15
Location: Houston, Harris
Joined: 3/29/2009
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Re: Pin Cushions |
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I will add that it is not "wrong" in my opinion to set a corner where you believe it is located at contrary to the location of an existing marker set by another Land Surveyor.
It is perfectly legitimate to have a difference of opinion. I do suggest that contact should be made with the other surveyor (before you set your marker) who set the corner you disagree with. However in some cases this is either impossible, not practical or inappropriate for a number of reasons.
http://www.profsurv.com/forum/Professional%20Surveyor%20Magazine%20Discussion/General-Surveying/Some-Houston,-Texas-street-monuments-3114.aspx
Above is a link to photographs of monuments which are rarely mentioned in the public record yet control many boundaries in and near downtown Houston, Texas.
If there is no evidence left of original monuments set to mark the location of a recorded Subdivision yet the recorded subdivision map shows the subdivision location relative to the reference monuments above, then what happens when you find newer "monuments" set by retracement surveys that do not agree with these reference monuments shown on the recorded Subdivision map record?
I would have no choice but to set a new monuments under most circumstances and create a "pin cushion". Every profession has people within it who do not agree with each other, why should Land Surveyors be any different?
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