| ReMonumentation |
| The terms "corner" and "monument" are not interchangeable. A "corner" is a point determined by the surveying process. A "monument" is the object or the physical structure which marks the corner point. The "corners" of the public land surveys are those points that determine the boundaries of the various subdivisions represented on the official plat - the township corner, the section corner, the quarter-section corner, the subdivision corner, or the meander corner. The "mile corner" of a State, reservation, or grant boundary does not mark a point of a subdivision; it is a station along the line, however, and long usage has given acceptance to the term. An "angle point" of a boundary marks a change in the bearing, and in that sense it is a corner of the survey. "Monuments" of the public land survey have included the deposit of some durable memorial, a marked wooden stake or post, a marked stone, an iron post having an inscribed cap, a marked tablet set in solid rock or in a concrete block, a marked tree, a rock in place marked with a cross (X) at the exact corner point, and other special types of markers, some of which are more substantial; any of these is termed a "monument." The several classes of accessories, such as bearing trees, bearing objects, reference monuments, mounds of stone, and pits dug in the sod or soil are aids in identifying the corner position. In their broader significance the accessories are a part of the corner monument. An existent corner is one whose position can be identified by verifying the evidence of the monument or its accessories, by reference to the description in the field notes, or located by an acceptable supplemental survey record, some physical evidence, or testimony. Even though its physical evidence may have entirely disappeared, a corner will not be regarded as lost if its position can be recovered through the testimony of one or more witnesses who have a dependable knowledge of the original location. |
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