‘Remonumenting’ Wilton Township

“Surveys in Waseca County are more expensive than any other area we work in,” observes Steve Thompson of Jones, Haugh and Smith Engineering out of Owatonna.

The problem, he explains, is “the uncertainty of the location of the corners that are needed.”

Thompson, a surveyor with 37 years of experience, relates that, as the territory that was to become Minnesota was working its way toward statehood in 1854, General Land Office (GLO) surveyors were sent out to measure and “monument” the land. “In the old days they used a compass and a chain 66 feet long that had 100 links in it,” he describes. “They measured the land and placed wooden stake monuments at the corners that became the foundation of all the land divisions that followed.”

In the case of Waseca County, which happens to be a geometrical rectangle, the area was divided into 12 townships, each six miles square. Each township was divided into 36 “sections,” each one mile on a side. It was the surveyors’ job to mark where the section lines were by measuring and “monumenting” the section and “quarter” corners at half-mile marks.

Earlier this year, Waseca County engineer Jim Kollar submitted a successful county application for a $300,000 state “Public Land Survey System Preservation” grant to be used toward confirming the locations of the section and quarter corners in Wilton Township. When he informed county commissioners regarding the grant, Kollar commented he chose Wilton because it will be among the more difficult townships to verify.

 Jones, Haugh and Smith, and specifically Thompson, will be in charge of “recovering” 133 corner locations over roughly the next 18 months. To clarify for those outside the field why the cost of “remonumenting” the corners, and of performing surveys for private individuals in Waseca County, is so high, Thompson must return to the story of those original surveyors.

Using their specialized chain and compass, a crew of usually a dozen or more workers criss-crossed the land. “It’s interesting to picture the challenges they faced then,” comments Thompson. “They had to work their way through thick prairie grass, around rivers, marshes and through woods.

“Most modern surveyors would like to work on a GLO crew for a few weeks if they could go back in time.”

Despite the challenges they faced, Thompson observes, their work was surprisingly precise. “Today we can use satellite positioning and technology that lets us determine the accurate location of a corner within one-quarter inch,” he says. “Most of the time, we find those old monuments are within 10 feet of being within the half mile.”

That is, when the monuments can be found.

Thompson explains that, once they determined the location of a corner, the 1850s crews would mark it by digging a shallow trench which surrounded a mound made of layers of sod. They would drive a wooden stake into the sod, and leave it standing as a “monument” to be used as a reference point by settlers. Surveyors would also record the location with what was then the “General Land Office,” and is now the Bureau of Land Management.

“Those original monuments were disappearing already by the 1880s,” observes Thompson, who has spent the last few months poring over county records. Old documents—many of them hand-written with quill pen in an oversized record book—make it clear Waseca County had three county surveyors on staff into the 1920s. Thompson speculates they likely had other duties as well, but at least part of their time was dedicated to taking crews out in the county and re-locating the original monuments to make subsequent surveys. Once verified, each would be re-marked using a stone or other more durable material. If the marker happened to be in the middle of a field or somewhere it was likely to be missed or moved, they might also “blaze” a tree, select a distinctive landmark, or place something durable nearby, then include notes that were filed at the county..

But the surveys stopped in the 1920s when Waseca County stopped staffing surveyors, and the quality of the monuments continued to degrade.

The most significant point about the original locations of the section corners is that they were the basis for all divisions of land that followed. Thompson phrases it, “they control the location of every property line, right of way and easement,” and also provide “the framework of the county geographic information system.

“These corners are needed every time a property line needs to be created or retraced.”

The reason surveys in Waseca County are so expensive, Thompson clarifies, is because if the exact location of the original section corner monument is not known, the surveyor must begin by recovering the original position.

Modern technology has made surveying quicker and more precise, but the methods of surveying remain the same.  If it becomes evident the marker itself is impossible to locate, surveyors must gather whatever evidence they can to determine the most likely original position of the corner. This may mean looking for old fence lines, for example, or even the vestiges of old fence lines, such as degrading posts or rusty pieces of barbed wire. It may mean looking for “blazed” trees: Thompson relates that in nearly 40 years of surveying, only once has he found the original bearing tree shown in the original GLO notes.

If the section corner happens to be in a roadway—a typical circumstance, since many roads were positioned along section lines—it may mean digging into gravel roads or even sawing into those with paved surfaces. The original wooden stakes are, of course, long gone, Thompson explains. But some of the crews which worked from the 1880s to the 1920s used stones to mark the corners.

Given the many possible complications and obstacles, Thompson remarks, it may take days of research followed by work with heavy equipment to recover a corner. Depending on the size and position of the property being surveyed, two to as many as eight corners may need to be found.

Because a considerable number of Waseca County’s corners require “recovery,” and because a cost of about $1,500 per corner is not uncommon, Thompson relates, surveys in Waseca County are expensive. “It’s a big puzzle,” he describes. “You’re going to spend a lot of time putting all the pieces together.”

He adds that, once a surveyor has verified the location of a previously lost section corner, he or she is required to “certify” it with appropriate government agencies, so that future surveys in its vicinity will be simpler to carry out and less expensive.

He remembers asking one Waseca County farmer to commit in advance to a contract of about $20,000 for one survey a few years ago, because the property was along a river and numerous important reference points were unavailable.

Conversely, of course, surveys in counties where the corner markers have been better maintained, are considerably less expensive.

Thompson comments he’s glad the state government is offering funds to counties for recovering monuments, saying it is a service to the general public and to landowners.

“You can see it’s been quite a story,” he observes. “Going forward, I hope it will be a much simpler one.”