[ZTT42]

If your property is actually a rectangle as shown, then line A-B = line ?-C, and line A-? = line B-C. Measure those distances from point A and point C. The intersection of the arcs with radii A-B and B-/C is point ?.
You can measure with drone, tape measure, laser rangefinder, pacing, whatever works for you.

 

[ZTT42]

Also, if you know how to use a compass, you can turn a 90 degree angle from the lines and follow the bearing to narrow down your arc.

 

[ZTT42]

If you simply fly your drone from A and C out toward ? and drop flags at distance AB and BC without a specific bearing, your flags will end up somewhere on the arcs in this drawing. They could be pretty far from ?
One approximation would be to fly roughly (i.e. guess) along the two dotted lines shown from C toward ? and from A towards ?.and drop 4 flags. Then pull a string between the two C-? flags and the two A-? flags. The intersection would be very close to ?, especially if the dotted lines aren't too far apart. If the strings don't cross you would need to change the flight angle and drop another flag or two. At the distances your looking at, the difference between an arc and a line (chord) would not be great.
The dotted lines don't have to be equal distance from the actual lines, just outside of them.
For this method, the hypotenuse is not necessary, but after the point is found could be used to verify the distance.

 

[ZTT42]

Use 3, 4, 5 (or 15, 20, 25, say) to develop a right triangle from C pointing to ?. Then, extend this line using line of sight and flags or flag stakes for at least distance AB. Then do the same from A. Where the sight lines cross is ?
- For this to work you must start with a true line between B and C, (and between A and B).

• You must use back sights to stay on line. i.e. Mark your 3,4,5 point with a flag. Then walk out roughly on line beyond the flag and line it up visually with the corner C. Set another flag exactly on this line of sight. Walk out again and line up the last two flags and set another...etc. The further you can go between flags and still get a good back sight, the better your line will be.
• you absolutely can not tie a flag on line if you are between two flags - for example trying to find a 3,4,5 point on line BC. If it's on line it is pure luck. I know this from experience, but it's a commonly made mistake.
• I used this method for 35 years field locating roads and boundary lines as a forester for Montana. I know it works and is easy to do.

 

[ZTT42]

Based on your photo above, I found information in this website about your parcel. It is two parcels that make up a quarter quarter section, 40 acres, minus the highway right of way for 36.5 acres. A 40 is a square 1320 feet on each side. Depending on what corner markers you have located, they may be the 40 corners or the R/W corners. You could probably get more info by calling or visiting the Iron River township offices, who maintain this site. Maybe even get documentation about the survey markers that are or have been in place.

Since you found this GPS app, you should be able to plug in the coordinates and just follow your phone to the point. They are Lat 46.101777; Long -88.736225. I also found these on the website. Just point at the corner and they are displayed at the top.

GIS Mapping - Iron River Township Michigan

GIS Mapping - Iron River Township

ironrivertownship.com

One thing to be aware of is that GPS in a phone does not give pinpoint accuracy. Depending on conditions the actual location may be up to 15 feet from that shown on the phone. That means distances and locations are estimates subject to error. Your app may display the accuracy level. Phone GPS is designed to get you from home to your newest favorite restaurant. Surveyors use sophisticated GPS equipment that is accurate within inches.

 

[ZTT42]

I see you are getting your drone. You should be able to plug in the coordinates and just follow your drone to the point. They are Lat 46.101777; Long -88.736225.

 

[ZTT42]

A lot of GIS info was put in place from scanned documents trying to marry it up with orthophotography. The planning department always made us state that any image we provide using the GIS system is not a "legal" boundary,

No doubt the Iron River GIS was done this way, no argument from me. There are a couple of saving graces though, in your case.
- Your outer boundaries are part of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS), so they fall on the original Section, Township, Range survey of the State. That overlay is available on their GIS map, and those lines correspond with your property lines. I used it to ID the coordinates.
-The highway right of way should have a separate plat, as noted in the property description.

 

[ZTT42]

I have tried both the state site and county to obtain a township map. Both say no can do without a sign-in.

I'm not sure exactly what you are trying to find, but If you go to the Iron River township GIS site I listed previously, you can zoom in and see the parcel lines. It is a messy red blob, but first click on the little bowtie in the middle and move the curtain to the left, then zoom in enough to find Hwy 2, then Old Beechwood road and follow it to your place, then zoom closer to see the plats. You can also turn on the Iron River 1/41/4 section lines. If you click on a parcel it will display the legal description, ownership and tax information. No sign-in is required to do this. It takes a little time to load the lines each time you zoom in, but it does work.

 

[ZTT42]

But there can't be that much information that it should take more than 30 minutes.

Dang. It shouldn't be that bad. When I said a little time to load the lines, I meant 3-6 seconds for the thick blobs to resolve to the next level on my slow 10MBPS DSL service. That said, GIS is a notorious data hog. The files are enormous and take up way too much data.
I was having speed problems and finally had to get a new modem from the phone company, then had to update the drivers in my computer before it would behave.
Here is a screenshot of the webpage with just jeff's plat

 

[ZTT42]

A lot of GIS info was put in place from scanned documents trying to marry it up with orthophotography. The planning department always made us state that any image we provide using the GIS system is not a "legal" boundary

In the screenshot, you can see that the plat lines don't line up exactly with features on the imagery. As PA318Guy said, it is all dependent on how well the various layers were able to be "fit to print" in the data entry. The only true data is in the the survey notes and on-ground staking.
Also, if you really zoom in close, the old beechwood road R/W boundary can be seen. It appears as a couple of wedge shaped slivers, one in each of the two lots. That may account for some of the weirdness in the legal description, or it just may be a anomaly in the plat drawing.

 

[ZTT42]

Here is a drawing I made of the legal description that Virtual Guy provided. It only covers the eastern tract where your house is located. The survey starts at the SW corner of section 19 and follows the section and 1/4/1/4 section line to the POB - Point Of Beginning. Then it describes the tract boundaries, minus the Road R/W. The Star is the corner you are looking for.
I looked at the legal description. for the other tract on the township website, but it is only partially shown - due to space limitations, I think. The first two locator bearings in this drawing would be the same for the other parcel.

 

[ZTT42]

Just Jeff - Now that you have 10 ways from Sunday to find that corner, you need to put on your industrial strength DEET and mosquito netting and find that corner! We're all waiting with bated breath for the results

Actually this has been a fun and challenging post, identifying info and sources and methods to do this. I am retired over 13 years from doing this stuff, and I was pretty old school even then.
One interesting thing is how much folks rely on technology that is unreliable - like believing that a GPS will get you to a pinpoint on the ground. It's great stuff, but everything has its limitations.

 

[ZTT42]

Will I found the problem. Will not yet NW corner N88°41'45"W can not be 88 some degrees south of NE corner N01°01'88"E. Things just don't work that way with an object almost rectangular. That would make the parcel one skewed parallelogram. If they have the SW corner confused with the NW corner this would be more a reality.

I am not sure what you are saying here, but after I read it, I looked at my plat drawing and noted that I wrote the wrong bearing to the left of the Star at the SE corner of the tract. That bearing should be N88 41' 45"W (not E). Since they used bearings, not azimuths, in the old survey, it can be more confusing. For example, N 88 41'45"W is azimuth 271 deg 18'15", or a line just over one degree off due west.

 

[ZTT42]

(NE,SE) (NW,SW) vertical from north and Beechwood. I am not familiar with crisscross locations. Maybe Michigan does things differently. But there are national standards.

Everything in the legal description follows the PLSS national standard. I followed the notes to make the drawing. It's possible you are misinterpreting my labels. The property is one of the two tracts in the SW1/4SW1/4 Section 19, T43N, R35W. They reference the survey to the SW corner of sec 19, a monumented verified point. Then they go 1/4 mile north to the NW corner of the SW1/4SW1/4 sec 19. Next they make a 90 degree turn and go east to the NW corner of the tract they are surveying. Then they survey the rectangular tract. All the bearings are little over 1 degree off true N, S, E, W; not unusual when trying to paste a square on to a globe.

 

[ZTT42]

I tried going online to figure out the GSI layout. No I am not paying for a class. Guess I an just use to see things given from longitude and latitude.

GIS is just mapping software that people have adapted to whatever purpose they need. They take a bunch of mapping data, stack it up in the computer and index it so you can select parts you want to reference. In this case, we're looking at some satellite or aerial photos overlaid with roads and other labeled geographic things, Then layers of the PLSS, subdivision property lines, owner titles, tax information, original survey notes, county lines, fire districts, National Forest boundaries, a cursor Lat/Long reference and who knows what else.
Before GIS, any of these things would have been on paper files in someone's office (or several someone's). It's amazing to be able to look at it all in one place. I use our County's GIS to update owners names for our subdivision's little water system. They post things there right after any real estate transaction.
I don't know if anyone is interested in this stuff, but here is an article that tells how Michigan was originally surveyed. The SW corner of Section 19 would have been established in this survey - quite a while before Satellites, GPS and GIS. Other states are similar.

USPLS survey

 

[ZTT42]

Okay guys, the wife found our copy of the survey. Here it is. There's a LOT of information on this thing! And based on the key, it appears that the property boundary in the SW corner is in fact, a piece of #5 rebar that's buried. So, without a metal detector, I'm not going to accurately know how to visibly mark our property boundary? That kind of sucks.

I'm also curious, why do they use several different types of markers on any given property, when a given single type could be used? And why ONLY have one buried, and not buried as well as something that's visible to the human eye? This doesn't make sense to me.

Hi. I hadn't looked at this post for a while, but now see a few things on your plat that may help you.

• They use different markers mostly for legal reasons. The original Public Land Survey established the section lines. The markers set can only be changed by an official process (for example in Montana rocks were scribed and set in the ground and witness trees marked around the corners. Some of these can still be found in wilderness areas. These were updated to posts with aluminum caps when property lines were updated). Interior subdivisions follow different rules to be consistent. Surveyors must follow rules for types of markers and when they can be set
• Your property lines follow this process. Your property line is the darkest line in the interior of your plat square. Look at the corner marker notes at the bottom of the plat, they are important.
• Unfortunately, the surveyor determined your lines mathematically on the west and north sides - corners shown with little black triangles - so there are no actual markers.
• From the plat: your SouthWest property corner is 33 ft east of an aluminum capped post that is now buried in the road. If you find it, it will have "SW Cor Sec 19" inscribed on a 2-inch cap. I am pretty sure this is the marker referenced by the sign in your photo.

-The surveyor that made this plat set a 5/8" x 30" rebar in the South East corner of your property. It likely has a plastic surveyor cap - small yellow, red, white - on top of it and should be several inches out of the ground. This is the corner you are trying to find. They often put a wooden stake or tie flags near the rebar.
- The surveyor set the same type rebar marker on the North East corner of your property, 33 feet from the center of the road right of way. Note that road R/W is different from the road itself. It's only a coincidence if the road is centered in the R/W, for a variety of reasons.
- The north line of your property is shown as several shorter lines with the triangles as corners. Adding up the noted lengths gives 1303.52 ft total.
Misc:
- There are no Lat/Long references on this plat. All the degree minute second notes are for compass bearings using
North, South East or West as zero.
- If you can find that North East corner rebar, that would probably be the most reliable spot to work from.
- Do what DL North says to establish the line

 

[ZTT42]

Hmmm have never seen this aluminum capped roadway marker. Could be on count of 30 years of dealing with state highway in six different states.

Here is an example of the kind of GLO survey marker that should be in the middle of the road near the yellow sign in your photo. It is likely not visible and set below the surface of the road. It is not a roadway marker, but is a section corner marker from the original Section/Township/Range survey of Michigan. From your plat, it appears the surveyor found this marker in 2014 when he did your property survey. You could probably find it with a metal detector. I don't think there is any way to be sure the yellow sign is on your property line.
The second pic is the kind of cap I would expect to see on the rebar markers the surveyor set (the SE and NE corners of your property.)

 

[ZTT42]

I re-posted your plat as one box. Not sure if you did the split or that's what you had.
Here are a few more observations.
-There are actually two surveys on the plat - first, the SW1/4SW Section 19, and second, your property and the right of ways.

• your south line is the same as the south line of Section 19, and the SW1/4SW1/4 of Section 19.
• Your east line is the same as the east line of SW1/4SW1/4.
• your west line is the road right of way line.
• your north line is the south edge of the road right of way of Old Beechwood Road.
• The SW1/4SW1/4 Section 19 is 40.44 acres.
• They subtracted 1.19 acres for Beechwood road, and 0.97 acres for the west side road, so your property is

36.28 acres.

• In 2014, the surveyor put a nail in the middle of Beechwood road at the S 1/16 corner of Section 19. That is the NW corner of the SW1/4SW1/4 Section 19. This "nail" might be a little plastic disk with the nail in the middle, or it may have been a nail pounded through some folded up plastic flagging ribbon. It is possibly still there, but a long shot after 7 years.
• I attached a little pic of a survey section labeled with the correct surveyor jargon. Your property would be in the far Southwest corner of the pic.

 

[ZTT42]

Here is a drawing of the type of compass quadrant bearings used in the plat. For simplicity, it shows degree bearings - the surveyor ran lines in degrees-minutes-seconds. So for example the South line at the bottom of the plat shows S 88 41' 32" E, that's 1deg 18' 28" south of due East, or 91 deg 18' 28" Azimuth.

To be official, everything would be tied into that SW section corner - the aluminum capped marker. So, the surveyor found that corner, then ran the south line at S 88 41' 32"E to the SE corner, then turned and ran the east line, etc., He monumented the corners for the SW1/4SW1/4 Section 19 with a nail in the Old Beechwood Road and two rebar posts. From that information, he identified the road R/W boundaries and consequently your property lines.

I found a couple of references on line to this type of notation and zillions of references to azimuth directions (0-360 degrees). Azimuths are the common notation used in map and compass training today, and are much less confusing. The surveyor used it because the original survey used it, and possibly some technical accuracy reasons I don't know about.
This discussion brings back memories of locating forest section corners for the State in the 1970's using a staff compass like this one. Used correctly they are quite accurate, including magnetic declination settings, a level bubble and aiming sights. I think it could be read in at least 1/4 degrees.

 

[ZTT42]

Kind of quiet here. Have you managed to look for your elusive corner?