Location Map of Your Land

HAVE GARY DO YOU A “DESCRIPTION MAP” OF YOUR LAND DESCRIPTION:

Do you have a good map of your property and really know where your property corners and lines are?   Such services to help you can be found at www.gbreisch.com or search on the “gbreisch” name.

The first step to obtaining such a map is to contact me.  Before most people can find precision property lines and corners, the description of the land should be “mapped.”

That description needs to be worded in such a way to be able to locate the land precisely. Ultimately it must have line distances and bearings (angular relationships to the lines or curves).

If your description or “legal description” describes a “Subdivision Name” with a Lot and/or Block number, then you only have a reference to a map or other description that has to be obtained in order to “find” what is needed.

TRS (Township Range Section) LOCATION MAP SERVICES:

If your description describes a part of a part, etc. of a section, then, of course, you need to locate the section with enough distances and bearings between the corners of the section to determine the parts.  This can be simple to those familiar with sections or what might be better called “survey sections”  I have gone into details about the way that Sections as a part of a TRS (Township Range Section)system are normally sized and arranged within a Township-Range grid.

A Section is often described by the general public as a “Square Mile.”  In the many years since 1965 of working with surveying and sections, I have never see a precise Square Mile as a Section, in fact, many Sections that I have seen or surveyed have eight sides and all the sides have different bearings (directional angles) and distances.

I have been accumulating section information near to and outward from my home town in Sand Springs, Oklahoma for most of my life.  I have a massive folder and file system that is arranged using the simple form of the TRS designation. Building a TRS map for a tract of land is one of may services I offer to Land Surveyors and direct to the public.  Such services to help you can be found at www.gbreisch.com or search on the “gbreisch” name.

I either pull up a TRS and update it with information on a description provided by a client or build one from scratch.  If the information is vague but enough to plot and use with other sources of map information such as historical map documentation such as aerial photos or Topography maps, then that is what is coordinated to create an approximate map of the subject tract of land.

“Description Map” SERVICES:

The more information that can be used to create such a “Description Map,” the better.  This can be a lot of work but is very useful when “looking for evidence on the ground” to come off of for the more precision location of the subject land.  It is the map that the novice through expert needs before visiting the site or venturing out to find the physical evidence to base the precision measurements and boundary location.

The “Description Map” with related files, archives, accounting and project set up starts at about $500 for most general public projects at 2011 prices. It costs a lot less to fellow surveyors because they require a fraction of the explanations, exhibits, and other information and instead, be able to transfer the information via CAD drawing as a service without the need for consulting, and explanations over the phone or via email typically needed by the general public.  On projects only requiring these maps, and with quantity locations, the cost can be reduced proportional to the time and “mass production” aspects of the project.

THE “Description Map” VALUE:

With that Map, most people will take that map to their immediate neighbors and give them an opportunity to take part in the “hunt” to find survey markers near out outward from the subject property in order to tie down the map and proceed to the next step. Once two points are found on a line, other points can be found more easily.  It is always better to find more than two points or corners, however, it is very common to find few markers for land further away from town, and is some counties, can be a big challenge resulting in a section survey that can cost thousands of dollars, even if it is a rural subdivision with a plat to use.

Some plats will not compute geometrically which can be very difficult to resolve with the little senior evidence available.  Sometimes, as with the mapping process, one has to consider the physical evidence of roads, fences, and other features with variable ties to survey markers to build the map or boundary as intended by proportion or a combination of various units of evidence within a budget.

DO YOU NEED THE COST OF A BOUNDARY SURVEY?:

One cannot reasonably site confidence to what one does not know for sure or what cannot be obtained within the time and resources provided.  As the land becomes more valuable and the need for agreement between adjoining land owners and evidence (documentation at the local County Clerk) is desirable.

It can be argumentative weather you really need to go to the expense of a Boundary Survey when all you may need is a “legal agreement” with the fellow boundary owners as to the location and survey markers that mark it.  Is it all about evidence or is it the “procedure” that may have no respect to your budget or needs?

There is no doubt with over 40 years of experience with this subject that my services are of great value to reasonable people. Reasonable people usually want to understand the importance of having maps that show their land location.  They also appreciate that the “Description Map” can provide them a basis of finding and showing evidence and providing more confidence in the understanding of their land ownership boundaries.

Naturally, surveyors would like to have an unlimited budget to provide Boundary Surveys that meet the minimum standards.  The minimum standards provide a good template for a great Boundary Survey but can be overkill and kill the budget of the client these days. Sometimes the procedural aspects ignore the reasonable aspects of physical evidence at the project site in favor of remote evidence.  The calculations that conflict with the sometimes vague or incorrect title documents can be very confusing for lands with few nearby and well done survey documentation.

MORE ABOUT THE “TRS” SYSTEM:

The TRS grid is numbered north and south by the name of Townships.  In other words, the north or south number of the grid can only be the Township. I use a numbers system that excludes the name because the north or south designation means that it is a township designation so why waste space to say it is a Township when the number and direction is all you need.  For example, I use 19N11E16 for the TRS of the Section that I reside.

The code name for the TRS that I use represents the least amount of characters needed to describe exactly the section that a property is described or anchored.  The 11E in that code represents Range 11 East because Range numbers are either east or west.  There are 36 sections in each Township-Range (TR) area.  The drawing above shows the Township-Range grid.  Each TR is about 36 square miles plus or minus.  More about the specific meaning of “plus or minus” or “more or less” later to explain a very important class of descriptions. The “more or less” designation refers to the section subdivisions with this wording that has been misused for many years by attorneys, abtract companies, and surveyors due to a lack of understanding and use.

The below drawing represents the shaded area of the drawing above and shows a TR that is divided down into sections to complete the TRS system designation.  All land surveys are based on the TRS system used by the County Clerk and County Assessor in each County of Oklahoma to locate boundaries and inventory ownership of land areas.

Township-Section Checkerboard

Notice that section 14 is shaded in the drawing above.  Each section is approximately 1 square mile or 640 acres.  You can truly say that each section is 640 acres more or less.  So why do we say “more or less”?  If  you know the exact dimensions of the section then there is no need to say “more or less.” If you know the precise dimensions of any tract of land then you can describe it from the section corners to precisely locate it and determine the precise area and description of the tract.  The precision dimensions are called “Metes” which is short for “measurements” provided by the land surveyor who measures the lines that make up a boundary of the tract of land being described.   If a person has those Metes then the area can be calculated to the nearest decimal based on the precision of the survey line measurements.  When the area is calculated using the measured sides of the tract, then there is no longer a need to describe the area and follow with the words “more or less” or “plus or minus”.

For example, the original surveyors set monument and references to them in the original surveys which, once set, were never supposed to be moved or changed.  Those eight section corners around the section are the sides of the section and are supposedly been preserved and in the same position as originally set.  Most savvy surveyors know that that is not the case with some of the sections corners we find these days in populated areas.  Many of the original section corners where sandstones that were set in place originally, then later replaced with other types of monuments or survey markers that are common today, more than 100 years later.  Can you imagine how many times that a county road worker wiped out a section corner  that is usually at the intersection of common section line roads in Oklahoma?

Section corners have been wiped out or damaged at intersections and between those intersections because of the natural process and treaties of old times.  Most section lines have “Statutory Right-of-Way” easements that allow access to by the public and/or government entities in Oklahoma established by treaties with the various tribal lands in Oklahoma.  Statutory Right-of-Ways are not just exclusive to Oklahoma.  The width of those easements are varied in Oklahoma and it takes a special map to determine them.  I have yet to find a precision map that will allow me to zoom into the boundaries of each territory where the width changes.  There is a need for a better definition.  Few understand much about those easements and I have found no one that can help me pin down the boundaries precisely.  It appears that that and many other points have been lost due to lack of maintenance in Oklahoma.

Below is an drawing illustration of a section breakdown and typical subdivision examples. The example shown below came from the shaded area of the drawing  above.  Each example I have shown starts from the larger to the smaller like using a magnifying glass and zooming in closer and closer to a tract of land.

Sample Breakdown or Subdivision of a Section

Unfortunately, the description of the tract within the section becomes more complicated and confusing unless you understand how to take a description and use it to plot the tract within the section as if the section was a perfect square mile.   I have yet to find a section as a perfect square mile so at this point, you must understand that we are working with “more or less” until the section has been measured and logged for both distance and bearings.

The breakdown or subdivision of a section has not changed for the better since the beginning section descriptions.  Many tracts of land are still described by “subdivision of a section” and are not considered “surveyed” even though the section was surveyed originally back in the 1800′s.  So if your land is described as the 1/4 or 1/2 parts or other part descriptions elements, it most likely has not been surveyed precisely and there is really no way to locate it precisely without finding the survey markers for it or finding the survey markers from other surveys that will allow you to divide the section down to show the true distances and bearings.  For those not familiar of what bearings mean, this can be complicated to explain in words.  The old saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words” applies to this process.

Bearings are basically directions based on what is used for the North, East, South, or East direction.   The North direction can be based on the direction of a shadow of the sun with a vertical line at its highest point in the sky.  Most surveys that I see show North as an assumed plan direction shown on the Survey Drawing or “Plat of Survey” (POS).  If a Survey Accurate GPS is used for the establishment of North, then all the bearings shown are considered “true” and accurate.  “Due North” said or written does not necessarily mean True North.  When early surveyors referenced “North” it could have been based on “Magnetic North” using a compass.  A compass is subject to many factors that influence accuracy.  Regardless of the basis of bearing, the surveyor would often measure angles to calculate bearings more precisely with instruments of higher precision to better describe the Metes for a POS.   Nowadays, with SAGPS (Survey Accurate GPS) equipment, the True Bearings can be calculated by precision measurements without looking through a telescope or pulling out the tape measure.

North is UP on most maps and is shown on the best maps for orientation.

Please understand that the Bounds are more important than the Metes.  Up to this point I have focused on the system that depends on the position of the original monuments and the measurement used to create a POS with a precise description of the tract of land. Many abstract and title companies locally have lost the experience and knowledge of the legal priorities of the TRS and Metes & Bounds (MB) system.  I am not an attorney but I know one of the best land law attorneys in Oklahoma that agrees with me on the priority of Bounds.  Few attorneys, abstract & title companies, County Clerks, County Assessors, Government Authorities and land surveyors understand the priority of Bounds for a MB description.

Advertisement