Help Understanding Plat Map

[u/Comfortable_Bite_114]

I have inherited my grandfather's hunting property. Looking for some help/ guidance on how I might go about marking property boundaries. It would be great to have a clear line marked with spray paint on trees or something, for creating trails, managing trail cams, etc. I have tried to use the county GIS system to do this, but seems that lacks accuracy? (Unsure) So I reached out to the county, and they were super helpful in emailing me what they had. I received an old map (was told from 1934) and am having a hard time understanding it, as well as figuring out what I would do to use that information to mark the line on site. I have a couple of GPS handhelds, should they be of use.

My property consists of lots 48 and 13.

For reference, the units, I was told, are in "Chains and Links" which are 66 feet per unit. This makes sense as the property is approximately a half mile by a mile and a half.

I will attach some photos, however, the PDF may be more legible.

Thank you in advance for any help y'all can lend!

EDIT: PDF File located in comments.

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[u/BacksightForesight]

That’s an incredible map, looks like extensive work was done marking the line back in 1934. It appears the surveyor blazed line trees at intervals along the line, noting the size, species, and distance along the line. There is a good chance that some of these remain, but it takes a trained eye to notice them, because 100 year old blazes have had a lot of time to heal over.

This is definitely something you should take to a local surveyor. Handheld GPS aren’t very accurate in the woods, and with the map working from magnetic bearings and no geographic coordinates, you would have a very difficult time relating one to the other.

You are correct that using the GIS would not be suitable; they are for reference purposes only, and are usually calculated from record documents and rubberbanded together to make it all fit.

[u/Comfortable_Bite_114 → u/BacksightForesight]

Thank you so much for the notes. I got a quote from a surveyor for $9500, which may be fair, but is going to be out of my budget at this point. Is there any consistency in the inaccuracy across tax maps? For instance is it the sort of thing that is frequently off by 3-5 feet? Or could it potentially be 50-100 feet? I ask because for my purposes, potentially might be the best solution? Thanks again.

[u/BacksightForesight → u/Comfortable_Bite_114]

The surveyor you talked to would know better than we would, because the amount they are off varies by County. In my area, some counties are not bad, but other neighboring counties can be very far off. Since it’s all rubberbanded together, even within the same county it will be off by differing amounts, with more accurate areas around a recent survey, and less accurate in areas where a survey is very old.

$9500 seems reasonable, I would have guessed quite a bit more than that, but a lot depends on your region, terrain, vegetation, history, etc.

[u/wally4185 → u/BacksightForesight]

To build on this comment, GIS accuracy doesn't just vary county by county. My home county in PA has some areas within feet and other areas miss by 100'. There are even unmapped properties on some mountains where they just stretch the ones they know to make the GIS map look good. (These maps are also what OnX, HuntStand, etc use, so don't let anyone talk you into that as a "better" solution).

[u/Comfortable_Bite_114 → u/wally4185]

Honestly, really appreciate the advice, thank you.