Mich. Comp. Laws § 54.100 — MI Code / Chapter 54 / Act R-S-of-1846 / Section 54.100
County surveyor; record book, contents, certification; field notes, preservation, index, certificate; deposit, fireproof vault, location; public inspection; bookkeeping requirement.
Status: in_force

Sec. 100.

Each county surveyor shall record in a suitable book, to be provided by him at the expense of the county, all surveys for permanent purposes made by him and his deputies, also surveys for township highways and village plats. The record of each survey shall set forth the evidence by which the surveyor determined or identified the corners or other starting points of his survey, describing the points fully, and also setting forth whatever means were taken by him to perpetuate them upon the ground or to assist in determining and preserving their location. The record shall show the object of the survey and the methods pursued by the surveyor in making it, diagrams of plats being used to illustrate the same when necessary or convenient to do so. Upon the diagrams shall be shown the courses and distances of such boundary lines as may have been located by the survey, and such other facts as may have been determined by it. Such diagrams shall be considered a part of the record. When the courses of the lines are given by the magnetic needle, the record shall show the amount and direction of the allowance made by the surveyor for the difference between the magnetic meridian and the true meridian. The record shall show the date of the survey, the name of the person or persons for whom it was made, and the persons employed as chainmen on the survey. The surveyor shall certify upon the record that he has carefully compared the record with the original field notes taken by him at the time of the survey, and that it is a true statement of the facts of such survey, as shown by said original notes. Each county surveyor and his deputies shall keep the original field notes of all surveys made by them for permanent purposes, in books of convenient size and well bound in leather, to be furnished by the county surveyor, at the expense of the county. These notes shall be taken and set down in the manner in which field notes of the United States surveys are kept, and shall contain all the details of each survey, in the order in which the survey was made, including in full all calculations made by the surveyor to determine areas, or for measuring inaccessible distances, such as lake and river crossings, or for any other purpose required by the survey. Diagrams may be used for purposes of illustration, but shall not be used instead of the written notes required to be kept. Each field book shall contain an index referring to the surveys of which it contains the field notes. It shall also contain the certificate of the surveyor who made the surveys, that the field notes therein contained are the complete original field notes of the surveys within referred to and described. These original field notes shall be a part of the record required to be kept by the county surveyor, and the books containing them shall be deposited and kept with the other surveyor's records of the county. Each deputy county surveyor, whenever 1 of these books shall be filed with field notes by him, shall deposit the same in the office of the county surveyor, and whenever his own term of office expires, shall turn over to the county surveyor such books as have been partly filled by him. The county surveyor shall keep the field notes and other county surveyor's records in a fireproof vault, in an office at the county seat, to be designated by the board of supervisors as a depository for the same, excepting that this shall not apply to the field books which are required to be used in the field by the surveyor in making his surveys, during the time when such books are thus being used. The field notes and records required by this act shall be accessible to the public at any time, subject to such regulations as may be provided by the board of supervisors. The county surveyor and his deputies shall keep the records of their surveys required by this act written up in full for each month within 7 days after the close of the month.

History: R.S. 1846, Ch. 14; CL 1857, 448; Am. 1861, Act 260, Eff. June 15, 1861; Am. 1869, Act 140, Eff. July 5, 1869; CL 1871, 590; Am. 1881, Act 103, Imd. Eff. Apr. 22, 1881; How. 619; Am. 1889, Act 100, Eff. Oct. 2, 1889; CL 1897, 2622; Am. 1905, Act 79, Eff. Sept. 16, 1905; CL 1915, 2484; CL 1929, 1396; CL 1948, 54.100