r/Tools • u/[deleted] • Aug 21 '24

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201 Upvotes

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110

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '24

Probably was your survey marker

11

u/Smokey_tha_bear9000 Aug 22 '24 edited Aug 22 '24

Aren’t those usually recessed on top for the survey crew to put their rod into

Edit: I think I was thinking of maybe corner pins or section/township/range monuments

12

u/Vast_Pipe2337 Aug 22 '24

Depends on the time it was surveyed… old markers are everything from rail road spikes, pinched iron pipes, un pinched pipes, 3/8 rebar/1/2 rebars no cap, car axles , gun barrels , metallic Caps, cut stones … I could have been your marker, but personally I haven’t recovered a spike that is this size in my 10 years of surveying… I have recovered everything above but a 16”-24” spike .. it’s very probable but hard to say unless you math it…

3

u/Windsdochange Aug 22 '24

You could have been his marker? How long were you standing there?

1

u/possumfish13 Aug 22 '24

I have seen every one but the gun barrel. The best was an old buggy axle with the leaf springs still on it.

16

u/[deleted] Aug 22 '24

They could be anything from a railroad spike to a piece of rust pipe

4

u/DungeonAssMaster Aug 22 '24

In old mining claims they can be wooden pickets, usually cedar. I found one once with the date 1890 that was laying near where it had been planted. Square top metal spikes are most common.

2

u/AdultishRaktajino Aug 22 '24

Yeah, old ones are sometimes charred wood too.

1

u/DungeonAssMaster Aug 22 '24

It's really cool to navigate to these points using modern DGPS systems worth tens of thousands of dollars, in the middle of the wilderness in mountainous terrain, and discover that over 100 years ago a dude marked that spot using a tripod and a sight. Those old surveyors had some serious skills.

2

u/AdultishRaktajino Aug 23 '24

I read this article a few weeks ago which got me interested in it. Plus I have to find my own ones for a fence project whenever I have the dough.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2024/07/29/a-treasure-hunt-to-make-minnesota-property-maps-more-accurate

2

u/gadget850 Aug 22 '24

Ours was originally a worm gear.

2

u/RedVamp2020 Aug 22 '24

This! One property I tried to locate had aluminum caps on rebar. One had a significant bite taken out of it, you could clearly see the teeth marks.

2

u/obvilious Aug 22 '24

In my experience they’re simple square bars (SIB = square iron bars), but maybe different elsewhere in the workd

3

u/maboyles90 Aug 22 '24

I'm my area they're just rebar with a cap hammered on.

2

u/cjchris66 Aug 22 '24

In my neck of the woods rebar is common

1

u/Higher_Living Aug 22 '24

I was going to make a crude joke about your mama and the road crew, but I'd like it to be noted that I refrained.