[or-roots] Little yellow signs

[Leslie Chapman]

Actually those "little yellow signs" actually come in a number of types, you
can often see them, especially on Federal land, wherever a section line
crosses the road you may find a sign that will give you the information
about what section you are in, and where you are in relation to the corners.

Also, as my little brother takes great delight in reminding me, they are
usually bearing trees or bearing "objects" in the case where the reference
is on something besides a tree. These will be in reference to a set corner,
in current GLO parlance witness trees and objects are for corners that
cannot be set, say in the middle of a lake or some such, and are very rarely
used, but as you can see below, in original GLO speak what are now called
witness trees are the same as bearing trees.


"
Under theGLO, the public land survey system (PLSS) was developed,in which
land was divided into a grid of square townships, each containing 36 square
mile (1.6 × 1.6 km) sections (Fig. 1).At each section corner and the
mid-point between section corners (quarter corner) a survey marker, usually
a stake, was placed. Between two and four witness trees were identified and
measured to document the corner location. Tree species, diameter, distance
from the corner, and compass bearing were recorded in the surveyors’
notebook. When traversing the section lines, the surveyors also recorded
trees that fell along the section lines (line trees), and trees around
survey posts set where section lines intersected lakes or impenetrable
wetlands (meander corners).
"

Actually on further review it seems to me like whoever put this piece of
text in the document I retrieved it from didn't really know what he was
talking about, as Meander corners were just that meandering corners. while
they are often set on section line intersections with lakes, ponds and so
forth, just because it is a meander corner does not mean it is on a section
line.

All right enough boring technical jargon, another category of little yellow
sign you may find when in the outdoors is boundary markers on federal
property lines, but those will not have any info on where you are.

As far as finding yourself when you are in the woods, the BLM uses the
Township, Range and Section on their roads, that is what those enigmatic
signs you may have never undestood mean eg; 21 12 4; the problem is what
that sign actually tells you is where one END of the road is, not where you
actually are, if it happens to be a fairly long road, and you don't know
where you are and which end is in that section, that information may not
give you much help.

Well enough chit chat, now I am sure a lot of you that actually had the
patience to read this whole thing are more confused than ever.

You're welcome!

Les C



-----Original Message-----
From: or-roots-admin at sosinet.sos.state.or.us
[mailto:or-roots-admin at sosinet.sos.state.or.us]On Behalf Of
glenkc7mbm at comcast.net
Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2006 12:32 PM
To: or-roots at sosinet.sos.state.or.us
Subject: Re: [or-roots] Aliquot parts


Just a Note in reference to Section Markers.
You will not find too many in developed areas but on national forest, State
and Blm land you will find small yellow squares on trees, posts, and in
Eastern Oregon in the ground next to cattle guards bronze on Concrete base's
I learned to read them years ago, they are all called witness posts or
trees, Etc and when you locate one you can find where you are on a map if
you are not sure where you are.
I looked at this site and it is good.
Glen

--
Glen A. Jones

-------------- Original message --------------
From: "Leslie Chapman" <reedsportchapmans at verizon.net>

> just stumbled across a real good page that explains that for anyone
hassling
> with homestead patents or other land descriptions that read things like;
>
> the SE 1/2 of The NW 1/4 of the SW !/4 Sec 22, T 4 S, R 2 E W. M.
>
>
> http://www.outfitters.com/genealogy/land/twprangemap.html
>
> note there is a link on this page that will take you to more Land info
> including a good PDF on genealogy and land descriptions
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> or-roots mailing list
> or-roots at sosinet.sos.state.or.us
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