The Best Kept Secrets in Montana Surveying Law (2 of 3)

"A "public land survey corner" is any geographic point (immutable and unchanging) actually established and monumented in an original survey or resurvey used as a basis of legal description for issuing a patent for the land to a private person from the United States government."

Let's look at another example. A General Land Office survey crew starts at the freshly monumented southwest corner of Section 9 and runs due north with a Burt solar compass and a fifty link chain for the record distance of twenty chains, to the sixteenth corner. The crew has not broken chain, and the head chainman places an arrow at the point which would be the sixteenth corner. Since the GLO surveyor did not monument this point, it can never be a public land survey corner. He has temporarily marked a corner of the rectangular survey system, but his location is lost when the rear chainman pulls the arrow. (Surveyors will spend the next 100 or so years trying to make their location fit that point.) The GLO surveyor proceeds up the line, and at 40 chains establishes a point for the quarter corner common to sections 8 and 9, which he monuments with a 20" x 8" x 10" sandstone boulder, marked with a "1/4" on the west face, and witnessed by two bearing trees. We now have an original corner marked with a monument and accessories.

At this point, a second requirement enters the picture. The second half of the definition of a "public land survey corner" specifies that the corner (geographic point) has been "used as a basis of legal description for issuing a patent --." This imposes the requirement that the geographic point must not only be actually monumented in an original survey or resurvey, but that the work must have been performed prior to the issuance of a patent, and actually used in the preparation of the description. If a present day surveyor finds this sandstone boulder, can confirm that it is in the original position, and has been used as a basis for issuing a patent, he is required to file a corner record if he uses it in his survey. Such a corner meets the requirements for a "public land survey corner." If the stone has fallen or is missing, but the EXACT GEOGRAPHIC POINT can be established or reestablished using the two bearing trees, this point also qualifies as a "public land survey corner." If there is no evidence of the stone or the trees, the corner is lost, and the surveyor is faced with locating a new point using some method other than utilizing original evidence. A location made in this fashion which does not coincide with the original geographic point is not a public land survey corner!

Most experienced surveyors will agree that it is unusual to find a quarter corner on the exact line between section corners, and usually not at the exact mid-point. A corner set by proportionate measure may be more mathematically exact than the original location, and may satisfy the clients very well, but such a location does not locate the geographic point established by the original surveyor, and does not conform to the definition of a "public land survey corner."

If the intent of the act had been to place on public record every location made by any method where there remained no original evidence, the requirement would have included all rectangular system corners not monumented--such as the center of the section, which probably causes more concern for the surveyor than any other point!

One instance in southwest Montana involves the most probable location of a section corner by four surveyors since 1970. The four locations were spread over 300 feet. It stretches belief to say that we have four public land survey corners. Most surveyors have found original monuments marking public land survey corners where at least one additional monument (rebar, spike, or lath marked "section corner"!) was within 50 feet of the existing original stone. Few of us would classify the stake, spike, or rebar as a "public land survey corner."

As a surveyor you have the experience and judgement to make the decision concerning what corner records you wish to file under the permissive provision, and what corners you will classify as "public land survey corners," and file accordingly.

Here is the second section which we will consider.

"70-22-108. Corner records to be certified. No corner record shall be filed unless the same is signed by a registered surveyor and stamped with his seal, or in the case of an agency of the United States Government or the state of Montana, the certificate may be signed by the survey party chief making the survey and approved, signed, and sealed by the registered surveyor in responsible charge of the agency."

Closely tied to this is another section (70-22-107), which says "The board shall by regulation provide and prescribe the information which shall be necessary to be included in the corner record, and the board shall prescribe the form in which such corner record shall be presented."

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