Favorite corner recoveries
The Ute Meridian in Western Colorado was twelve townships surveyed in 1890 and 1891 by Daniel Major. It was intended to be a reservation for the Ute Indians but that did not happen. According to some, because of the Meeker Massacre of 1879 the reservation was moved to Utah. The Ute Meridian was surveyed using the three-mile method, with exception in T1N, R1E where the three-mile method was used only in Sections 30 through 33. It was monumented with occasional stones but mostly 3″ square cottonwood posts and pits.
In 1915 A. Teller performed a dependent resurvey of T1N, R1E and set iron pipe and brass cap monuments. It was reported that at that time they recovered only 30% of the 1890 era monuments.
In 2012 I and my staff performed a survey for the withdrawal of BLM lands to facilitate the expansion of a major airport. This required monument recovery in T1N, R1W as well as in T1N, R1E. In T1N, R1W which had not been resurveyed in the sections we were involved with we recovered not a single monument despite diligent research and ground searches. In T1N, R1E we recovered eighteen of the 1915 monuments, most of them apparently unused since originally set.
Many of the monuments were in poor condition. Some caps were dislodged and or missing. Many of the iron pipes were reduced to rust on a cement core. A shiny new aluminum pipe and cap represented one section corner but the associated plat revealed only three-point control. The fourth point was easily recovered and a double proportion solution suggested a new search position about twelve feet from the existing monument. Using the always-reliable Schonstedt, a Bounty Hunter metal locator and a Whites pinpointer we were able to detect a signal indication of a possible monument. Careful excavation to about a foot deep revealed the faint ring of rust shown in the first two photos. Other photos show the typical condition of other monuments recovered during this survey.
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