DECISIONS RELATING TO THE PUBLIC LANDS. RESTORATION OF LOST OR OBLITERATED CORNERS. CIRCULAR. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, D. C., June 1, 1909. 1. The increasing number of letters from county and local surveyors received at this office making inquiry as to the proper method of restoring to their original position lost or obliterated corners marking the survey of the public lands of the United States, or such as have been willfully or accidentally moved from their original position, have rendered the preparation of the following general rules necessary, particularly as in a very large number of cases the immediate facts necessary to a thorough and intelligent understanding are omitted. Moreover, surveys having been made under the authority of different acts of Congress, different results have been obtained, and no special law has been enacted by that authority covering and regulating the subject of the above-named inquiries. Hence, the general rule here given must be considered merely as an expression of the opinion of this office on the subject, based, however, upon the spirit of the several acts of Congress authorizing the surveys, as construed by this office, and by United States court decisions. When cases arise which are not covered by these rules, and the advice of this office is desired, the letter of inquiry should always contain a description of the particular corner, with reference to the township, range, and section of the public surveys, to enable this office to consult the record. 2. An obliterated corner is one where no visible evidence remains of the work of the original surveyor in establishing it. Its location may, however, have been preserved beyond all question by acts of 3098-VOL 38-09- -1 landowners, and by the memory of those who knew and recollect the true situs of the original monument. In such cases it is not a lost corner. A lost corner is one whose position can not be determined, beyond reasonable doubt, either from original marks or reliable external evidence. Surveyors sometimes err in their decision whether a corner is to be treated as lost or only obliterated. 3. Surveyors who have been United States deputies should bear in mind that in their private capacity they must act under somewhat different rules of law from those governing original surveys, and should carefully distinguish between the provisions of the statute which guide a government deputy and those which apply to retracement of lines once surveyed. The failure to observe this distinction. has been prolific of erroneous work and injustice to landowners. 4. To restore extinct boundaries of the public lands correctly, the surveyor must have some knowledge of the manner in which townships were subdivided by the several methods authorized by Congress. Without this knowledge he may be greatly embarrassed in the field, and is liable to make mistakes invalidating his work, and leading eventually to serious litigation. 5. Various regions of this country were surveyed under different sets of instructions issued at periods ranging from 1785 to the present time. The earliest rules were given to deputy surveyors in manuscript or in printed circulars, and no copies are available for distribution. Regulations more in detail, improving the system for greater accuracy and permanency, were issued in book form, editions of 1855, 1871, 1890, 1894, and 1902. The supply of copies of these is exhausted, except the latest, which is now sold at cost to unofficial applicants by the Superintendent of Documents. 6. The chief acts of Congress authorizing and regulating publicland surveys are summarized below to enable anyone to consult the full record thereof for explanation of difficult questions regarding early surveys. 7. Compliance with the provisions of congressional legislation at different periods has resulted in two sets of corners being established on township lines at one time; at other times three sets of corners have been established on range lines; while the system now in operation makes but one set of corners on township boundaries, except on standard lines-i. e., base and correction lines, and in some exceptional cases. The following brief explanation of the modes which have been practiced will be of service to all who may be called upon to restore obliterated boundaries of the public-land surveys: Where two sets of corners were established on township boundaries, one set was planted at the time the exteriors were run, those on the north boundary belonging to the sections and quarter sections north of said line, and those on the west boundary belonging to the sections and quarter sections west of that line. The other set of corners was established when the township was subdivided. This method, as stated, resulted in the establishment of two sets of corners on all four sides of the township. Where three sets of corners were established on the range lines, the subdivisional surveys were made in the above manner, except that the east and west section lines, instead of being closed upon the corners previously established on the east boundary of the township, were run due east from the last interior section corner, and new corners were erected at the points of intersection with the range line. 8. The method now in practice, where regular conditions are found, requires section lines to be initiated at the corners on the south boundary of the township, and to close on existing corners on the east, north, and west boundaries of the township, except that when the north boundary is a base line or standard parallel, new corners are set thereon, called closing corners. But in some cases, for special reasons, an opposite course of procedure has been followed, and subdivisional work has been begun on the north boundary and has been extended southward. 9. For the above reasons it is evident that a subsequent surveyor ought not to perform field work without knowing all the facts of the original survey, lest there be unsuspected duplication of official corners, leading him to use the wrong one in his survey. Upon township and range lines it is often necessary to procure copies of the plats of surveys on both sides, in order to become certain of the necessary understanding of the case, as required in section 57 of this circular. A great many township plats fail to show the second set of corners, established in the survey of an adjoining township, subsequent to the plat of the former township. 10. In the more recent general instructions greater care has been exercised to secure rectangular subdivisions by fixing a strict limitation that no new township exteriors or section lines shall depart from a true meridian or east and west line more than twenty-one minutes of arc; and that where a random line is found liable to correction beyond this limit, a true line on a cardinal course must be run, setting a closing corner on the line to which it closes. This produces, in new surveys closing to irregular old work, a great number of exteriors marked by a double set of corners. All retracing surveyors should proceed under these new conditions with full knowledge of the field notes and exceptional methods of subdivision. Ordinance of the Congress of the Con federation of May 20, SYNOPSIS OF ACTS OF CONGRESS. 11. The first enactment in regard to the surveying of the public lands was an ordinance passed by the Congress of the Confederation May 20, 1785, prescribing the mode for the survey of the "Western Territory," and which provided that said territory should be divided into townships of six miles square, by lines running due north and south, and others crossing them at right angles" as near as might be. 1785. U.S. Land Laws, p. 349, edition 1828. 66 It further provided that the first line running north and south should begin on the Ohio River at a point due north from the western terminus of a line run as the south boundary of the State of Pennsylvania, and the first line running east and west should begin at the same point and extend through the whole territory. In these initial surveys only the exterior lines of the townships were surveyed, but the plats were marked by subdivisions into sections 1 mile square, numbered from 1 to 36, commencing with No. 1 in the southeast corner of the township, and running from south to north in each tier to No. 36 in the northwest corner of the township; mile corners were established on the township lines. The region embraced by the surveys under this law forms a part of the present State of Ohio, and is generally known as "the Seven Ranges." 12. The Federal Congress passed a law, approved May 18, 1796, in regard to surveying the public domain, which applied to "the territory northwest of the River Ohio, and above the mouth of the Kentucky River." Act of May 18, 1796. U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. 1, p. 465. Revised Statutes. Section 2 of said act provided for dividing such lands as had not been already surveyed or disposed of "by north and south lines run according to the true meredian, and by others crossing them at right angles, so as to form townships of six miles square," etc. It also provided that "one-half of said townships, taking them alternately, should be subdivided into sections containing, as nearly as may be, 640 acres each, by running through the same each way parallel lines at the end of every two miles; and by marking a corner on each of said lines at the end of every mile." The act also provided that "the sections shall be numbered, respectively, beginning with the number one in the northeast section, and proceeding west and east alternately through the township, with progressive numbers till the thirty-sixth be completed." This method of numbering sections is still in use. Act of May 10, 1800, U. S. Statutes at 13. An act amendatory of the foregoing, approved May 10, 1800, required the "townships west of the Muskingum, which are directed to be sold in quarter townships, to be subdivided into half sections of 320 acres each, as nearly as may be, by running parallel lines through the same from east to west, and from south to north, at the distance of one mile from each other, and marking corners, at Large, vol. 2, p. 73. Section 2395, U. S. the distance of each half mile on the lines running from east to west, and at the distance of each mile on those running from south to north. And the interior lines of townships intersected by the Muskingum, and of all townships lying east of that river, which have not been heretofore actually subdivided into sections, shall also be run and marked * * * And in all cases where the exterior lines of the townships thus to be subdivided into,sections or half sections, shall exceed or shall not extend six miles, the excess or deficiency shall be specially noted, and added to or deducted from the western cr northern ranges of sections or half sections in such townships, according as the error may be in running the lines from east to west or from south to north." Said act also provided that the northern and western tiers of sections should be sold as containing only the quantity expressed on the plats, and all others as containing the complete legal quantity. Act of June 1, 1796. Large, vol. 1, p. 499. Act of March 1, 1800. U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. 2, p. 14. 14. The act approved June 1, 1796, "regulating the grants of land appropriated for military services," etc., provided for U. S. Statutes at dividing the "United States Military Tract," in the State of Ohio, into townships 5 miles square, each to be subdivided into quarter townships containing 4,000 acres. 15. Section 6 of the act approved March 1, 1800, amendatory of the foregoing act, enacted that the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to subdivide the quarter townships into lots of 100 acres, bounded as nearly as practicable by parallel lines 160 perches in length by 100 perches in width. These subdivisions into lots, however, were made upon the plats in the office of the Secretary of the Treasury, and the actual survey was only made at a subsequent time when a sufficient number of such lots had been located to warrant the survey. It thus happened, in some instances, that when the survey came to be made the plat and survey could not be made to agree, and that fractional lots on plats were entirely crowded out. A knowledge of this fact may explain some of the difficulties met with in the district thus subdivided. 16. The act Act of February 11, 1805. U. S. Statutes of greatest importance to the work of all retracing surveyors is the one approved February 11, 1805, which is still in force, as reenacted by revision in 1873. It directs the subdivision of public lands into quartersections, and sets forth three principles for ascertaining the boundaries and contents of tracts of public land, after survey, in substance as follows: at Large, vol. 2, p. 313. Section 2396, U. S. Revised Statutes. 17. (a) All corners marked in the surveys returned by the surveyorgeneral shall be established as the proper corners of the sections or quarter-sections which they were intended to designate, and corners of half and quarter sections not marked shall be placed as nearly as possible" equidistant from those two corners which stand on the same line." |