Postcard from the Rockies 4

In Colorado, landowners often make their first call to their county surveyor for questions or complaints about disputes they are having with their neighbors - we have no actual power, but we spend a lot of time listening to both sides and offering our best advice. 

My county is surrounded on three sides by the Continental Divide. One geographic reality of this natural barrier is there is the metropolis of Denver/Boulder only about 60 miles from the county line, but due to geography our mountains are relatively hard to get to. Thus, we have "backwoods" cabins owned by actual rocket scientists and university professors. our county, once you get here, is very rural, and offers a great, but fairly close to work , getaway for the city people. 

I get one such call about a disputed boundary from a guy who lives here, and sells bbq for a living. This means he works his butt off, and is from modest background. His neighbor is a university professor, part time occupant. My task is to advise Mr. BBQ if his survey is correct. He wishes to build a fence on one line of his property (obviously to spite his neighbor). 

I arrive at the site with plat in hand recently paid for by Mr. BBQ. I find original monuments on each side of the line circa 1965. so far, so good, its pretty hard to find old original monuments these days. 

The 200 foot long line is relatively flat but obscured by many tall pines. using eyeball, the neighbors driveway appears to be entirely within his side of the line. Under these circumstances, all I can do is check the pins - and this will take several setups and now I am looking at hours of time and of course no one will be happy with the result. 

Interestingly, I saw a stringline from pin to pin. but not like most stringlines. THIS stringline started at one pin, then zigzagged wildly around the trees, and eventually tied into the second pin. this seemed odd. 

Then Mr. Professor comes out and asks me who I am and why I'm there. 

Sir, do you have a recent survey? No. 

Is it your understanding that these two pins mark your property line? Yes. 

Has any surveyor ever advised you that there is some sort of error with your property? No. 

I am here because you called the county surveyor and said that your neighbor was trying to build a fence on your property. I'm checking it out. I'm the county surveyor. at your service. 

I see. Well, this string line was approved by the county sheriff yesterday. I am going to take my neighbor to court for trying to take our land where he wants to build a fence, here are 2 documents that prove my case. 

He gives me the 1965 survey, and the recent survey, both which indicate there is no issue. 

Me: Sir, I'm sorry about your dispute, I always meet the neighbors under duress, but I will always give you my honest opinion. According to both these documents you gave me, your neighbor has a right to build his fence in a straight line from pin to pin, and doing so would cause no apparent dispute. I see no error anywhere. 

Mr. Professor: I understand my boundary to be along that string line. 

Me: That string line is not straight. No effort was made to make it straight. It appears to veer about 20 feet into your neighbor's property. Who placed this string?

Mr. Professor: Me. I showed it to the Sheriff, and the Sheriff approved it and considers that string to be my boundary. 

Me. sir, your plat says this line is straight. 

Mr Professor: I am a scientist! I am a trained expert in reading the data! My land follows the string!

Me: Sir, I am obviously wasting your time. I will call your neighbor and let him know that in my opinion, his recent survey is correct, and that you confirmed that to your knowledge, these two original pins have not been disturbed since 1965. 

Thus, I waste my day, and make one more enemy. A university PHD can't fathom the meaning of a correct survey of a fairly short line, monumented without incident since 1965. A BBQ man had paid a surveyor to get it done professionally, in good faith, within all legal requirements. I will make the fair assumption that the BBQ man has no college degree, much less a PHD. He made the mistake of living next to a professor's second home, there for the reason of "getting away from it all" (but he just brings it with him). I am sure that the cost of building a fence cost this poor BBQ man a lot of lawyer time in addition to a survey. poor guy.