CHAPTER 2 PERILS OF LAND LOCATION IN THE PUBLIC LAND SURVEY SYSTEM
| Jurisdiction | United States |
(Feb 2012)
PERILS OF LAND LOCATION IN THE PUBLIC LAND SURVEY SYSTEM
Bureau of Land Management
Lakewood, Colorado
Roger D. Nelson
Professional Land Surveyors of Colorado, Inc.
Merrick & Company
Aurora, Colorado
RANDALL A. BLOOM works as a land surveyor for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Colorado State Office. He is a 1987 graduate of the Oregon Institute of Technology (B.S. Land Surveying) and a Colorado registered land surveyor. Randy's experience includes providing boundary and land description service in the Public Land Survey System for the past 25 years for the BLM and other federal agencies.
ROGER D. NELSON, PLS, CFedS, received his Associate of Science in Surveying from Louisiana Tech University in May of 1986 and Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management, November of 1989. He has been in the field of surveying in Colorado since August of 1991 and serves as President for the Professional Land Surveyors of Colorado (PLSC). He has taught the PLSC refresher course, Colorado Law I & II for the past 7 years, for those aspiring licensure. He has been employed by Merrick & Company for the last seventeen years and serves as a technical vice president/program manager. Roger is now licensed surveyor in Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Florida.
Those land tenure specialists who utilize descriptions based on the nomenclature of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) should be aware of the perils of that system. A description that calls for the east half of Section 5 (E1/2 of Section 5) in Township 4 North, Range 62 West, of the Sixth Principal Meridian, is clear enough, but the actual location on the ground of that parcel of land is dependent on numerous complex considerations that are fraught with real challenges that are ripe for potential litigation. It is critical for those writing, interpreting and relying on land descriptions to be cognizant of these challenges.
The PLSS was created by the Land Ordinance Act of 1785. The primary purpose of the act was to govern the surveying, description and location of land for orderly conveyance and management. It is a system based on physical corner monuments with the intention that they mark and control the location of land. It is based on the ancient principle that corner monuments, set to describe a parcel of land, should, if found in their original undisturbed location, be of primary importance in controlling the location of that land. A complete description of the PLSS is provided in many textbooks on land surveying. In the western United States, the great majority of the original surveys were conducted in the mid to late 1800s under a contract system administered under the auspices of the General Land Office (GLO).
In the PLSS, the description, "El/2 of Section 5" is clear. However, the location of this parcel of land is not always as clear as the description. There are several reasons that explain this.
There are features inherent in the PLSS that challenge the work of land surveyors and land tenure specialists. In some instances, the degree of care exercised in the original survey measurements was lacking, though the surveying instruments and procedures of the era were sufficient for their purpose; it is not a "new vs. old" technology problem. On some occasions, the surveys were not carried out in good faith; the original surveyors did not do what was reported to have been done. In most cases, the material utilized for corner monuments was inadequate for the stated purpose. For example, in many areas of the western United States, corner evidence (set in some cases 150 years ago) consists of piles of rocks, or shallow earthen pits, marked and unmarked stones, wooden stakes and scribe marks on trees. Not surprisingly, in many cases, due to natural and/or human causes, there is scant direct physical evidence of these markers, or there is extensive obliteration of such evidence.
In summary, inherent features of the PLSS present a challenge to land tenure specialists who expect that clear location should follow clear description.
Other features inherent in land surveying practices can present challenges to land tenure specialists.
To locate the El/2 of Section 5, a land surveyor must conduct proper research of cadastral survey records to determine how Section 5 was originally surveyed, what corner monuments were set and what monuments were subsequently set or identified in prior surveys or as evidenced in sundry conveyance documents. In many cases, no record of the work performed by local surveyors can be found, because these surveys were not recorded or were lost or destroyed by
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causes such as fire. This cadastral records research, if not properly conducted, will result in the E1/2 of Section 5 being located, on the ground, in the wrong location. However, even the results of proper research are open to differences of opinions between land surveyors. One land surveyor might weigh a piece of record evidence differently than another land surveyor, resulting in two widely different locations.
After careful research, a land surveyor must attempt to find and...
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