Abstract

The Four Corners Legacy: Why Monuments, Not Calculations, Define Boundaries
Track: Education
Authors: Warren Ward

The Four Corners Legacy: Why Monuments, Not Calculations, Define Property.

By: Warren D. Ward, PLS

This presentation examines 1,001 reasons why surveyors plant pin gardens despite the Four Corners Legacy, and how GIS professionals, surveyors and landowners can determine which of several survey monuments that lie within a small radius is the property corner.

This presentation explains how and why surveyors misuse precise survey instruments in the process of retracing property lines and property corners, and why the determination of a proper property corner out of multiple monuments, or "pin gardens" usually requires more research than measuring.

Surveyors are usually responsible for the peculiar phenomenon of planting pin gardens. This is often a frustrating experience for landowners, or GIS professionals attempting to develop an accurate cadastre. This phenomenon is often unnecessary and can be prevented through existing legal principles of retracement for surveyors.

A number of actual pin gardens are examined, and resolved with legal rationale.

This presentation is based on the history of the Four Corners Monument: Where recent misinterpretation of GPS data resulted in a national news story that lead many to believe, incorrectly, that the Four Corners Monument was in the wrong place by 2.5 miles.

In fact, the true history of the Four Corners Monument is a model that all surveyors should live by. This history involved surveyors with crude instruments, two presidents, national struggles, disputes over more precise surveys, a dispute between two states, the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Four Corners Legacy establishes that monuments control over calculations, subsequent surveyors, and GPS disputes!

Warren Ward is a Colorado Professional Land Surveyor who has served as the Grand County, Colorado Surveyor for 20 years. His duties often require advising landowners, GIS Departments, surveyors, county officials and attorneys how to resolve boundary disputes outside of court.