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Hi all,
I am looking at a plat map for my tract of land and trying to find the boundary. The plat map gives some coordinates marked by a "bar set". I am guessing this is a steel rod or some kind of spike placed in the ground? I tried doing a Google search for what some may look like but I'm not sure if they are what I am looking for.
"....passing a 1/2" steel bar set.."
Thanks for any clues.
"bar set" usually means the property surveyor set the bar in place while doing the survey. i.e. the surveyor set the bar to represent what he understood the property corner should be. This is often done if they cannot find the original corner marker.
...I don't have much $$, but am surely and slowly adding more land while I can..
If inclined to go up to Tyler County...
I have a friend near Woodville who might sell a nice piece.
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Reading my plat map, I see a system of "metes and bounds" is used, thus I need to use the riverbend at the corner of my property as a start and walk about 140 ft to the west to find the first steel bar.
When I read "TEXAS"... (great book worth reading)
I recall that there were some unusual Spanish methods in surveying and land title used in the old days. I'd be curious if any of that phrasing or even the lines live on...
If inclined to go up to Tyler County...
I have a friend near Woodville who might sell a nice piece.
When I read "TEXAS"... (great book worth reading)
I recall that there were some unusual Spanish methods in surveying and land title used in the old days. I'd be curious if any of that phrasing or even the lines live on...
Back while I was in college, I once worked for a company that had contracts with local governments in places like Georgia and Alabama, which were contracted to try and produce plats/maps showing property ownership in areas where all of the parcels of land were described by "meets and bounds". Some of the legal descriptions were really amusing, such as: "beginning at a point 2,123' West of the highway signpost at the SW corner of State Highway 34 and Podunk Lane, thence commencing South-southeasterly along the fence line of Podunk Lane a distance of 338' to a corner marked by a cross chistled into the top of large white rock. Etc, etc.
If you like puzzles this is the job for you, as the descriptions of adjacent properties were often in conflict or so vague no one could figure out what they meant, especially if you were sitting at an aerial map table in Denver, CO trying to figure out what they were talking about on the ground over there in Podunk, Georgia. I quit this job after a few weeks when I got a job with a "real civil engineering firm".
The title company gave me field notes with a plat of my tract (which is part of a larger tract). I don't know how old my survey goes back, but the people that sold me my piece owned the land since the late 1800s, which was "purchased" from a family with a Spanish/Mexican name. Who knows if that was a Spanish land grant, but I doubt it--don't think the Spaniards had enough people to claim this area of Texas at the time. This is curious, as an amateur historian, I will start some groundwork on learning more about the history of my land! Did find an arrowhead on it.
Yes, the field notes contain metes and bounds. Here's a sample of some of the wording:
"BEGINNING at a point on the West Bank of the Pedernales River, for the N.E. corner of that 12.0 acre tract of land described in a conveyance to Allison Schultz...........skipping some parts here.....THENCE up the meanders of the West bank of the Pedernales River....THENCE over and across said 11.85 acre tract, as follows: West, at 142.4 feet passing a 1/2 inch steel bar set, ...."
Btw, about Michener's TEXAS...that is supposed his best book.
I've liked all his books. And if you haven't read Texas... get a copy!
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His ALASKA was very bad, according to Alaskans I've talked to.
Meh. I've heard this sort of criticism from Texans too...
and from Marylanders wrt Chesapeake, and Coloradoans wrt Centennial.
I wouldn't pay it much mind.
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
6,957 posts, read 22,311,234 times
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Originally Posted by TexasNick
"BEGINNING at a point on the West Bank of the Pedernales River, for the N.E. corner of that 12.0 acre tract of land described in a conveyance to Allison Schultz...........skipping some parts here.....THENCE up the meanders of the West bank of the Pedernales River....THENCE over and across said 11.85 acre tract, as follows: West, at 142.4 feet passing a 1/2 inch steel bar set, ...."
You should also realize that the river may or may not be in the same place it was when the legal description was originally written.
We had one that referred to a 12" oak tree as a corner. That oak tree, 100 years later is about 4' in diameter now.
"bar set" usually means the property surveyor set the bar in place while doing the survey. i.e. the surveyor set the bar to represent what he understood the property corner should be. This is often done if they cannot find the original corner marker.
Exactly. Usually it will say IPF or IBF (iron pipe or bar found) if they found one and did not need to set a new one.
The title company gave me field notes with a plat of my tract (which is part of a larger tract). I don't know how old my survey goes back, but the people that sold me my piece owned the land since the late 1800s, which was "purchased" from a family with a Spanish/Mexican name. Who knows if that was a Spanish land grant, but I doubt it--don't think the Spaniards had enough people to claim this area of Texas at the time. This is curious, as an amateur historian, I will start some groundwork on learning more about the history of my land! Did find an arrowhead on it.
Yes, the field notes contain metes and bounds. Here's a sample of some of the wording:
"BEGINNING at a point on the West Bank of the Pedernales River, for the N.E. corner of that 12.0 acre tract of land described in a conveyance to Allison Schultz...........skipping some parts here.....THENCE up the meanders of the West bank of the Pedernales River....THENCE over and across said 11.85 acre tract, as follows: West, at 142.4 feet passing a 1/2 inch steel bar set, ...."
A came across this description this morning of how many of the original land surveys for sections were done. A section is roughly 1 mile by 1 mile square.
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“We rode in a team and wagon with a driver, a pile of rocks, 2 fellows with chisels to mark the rocks, and a man to count the revolutions of the wagon wheel that had a red tag tied on it. It was predetermined how many revolutions made a half-mile. When sufficient turns were made he would call out and one of the men would drop out his marked rock. If the ground was flat, the rock stayed put, but sometimes it would roll a little.” These cornerstones are still used today and most are surprisingly accurate.
CptnRn,
Thanks for that description. Do surveyors today still use the metes and bounds method?
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