El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1919-08-16

meanings; Inaccurate surveying; lost
maps and many other causes
Early Day Mixups.
Back in revolutionary times. sur
veyors had no definite information
regarding latitude and longitude In
the United states. and very little idea
OF the vast extent OF the country. Yet
charters often fixed boundary lines
according TO degree Of attitudes as
they were supposed to be located. and
/ the surveyors had to struggle with
directions which became at times i'm
possible to follow
Carelessness resulted. and in some
cases surveyors marked boundary
lines two miles or more out Of the
way, which made trouble for their
successors. These old lines have been
mostly revised and verified. often
with great difficulty
The popular way Of marking boun-
daries when the first lines were run,
was TO blaze a trail along the boun-
dairy fixed by the survey. This WAS
done by slashing the bark OF the trees
at intervals along the line. with
special mark Of several notches to in
dictate corners Some Of these lines
were blazed $50 years go, and. after
100 years, even an oak tree, which
shows such marks longest, has almost
healed its wound Surveyors hunting
for these landmarks have to scrape
the bark and cut into the trees which
answer the descriptions given in
boundary documents
Finding an Old Line.
This sort OF detective work solved
the Tennessee-North Carolina boun-
Diary question in 1915. The line was
supposed 10 follow a range OF noun
tains. but the mountains gave out be-
fore the end Of the line was reached.
and the only way to establish the line
was to hunt fer the original boundary
marks In this case 100 trees had
--nz-fraa in 1901 nearly TNN
before. Although the notches were
almost obliterateds 30 blazed trees
were found.
A similar search IN Maryland set
ted 50 year dispute IN Whien sow .I,--
600 had been spent IN lawsuits me
rings on some Of the trees Showed
that the notches had been made 80
years before. thus proving which
trees marked the original survey
Surveyors no longer mark off i'm
portant boundaries BY olazed lines.
Where rivers or other distinct natural
boundaries do not exist monuments
are set up The Mexican border IS
decorated every few miles by large
iron blocks that can be seen for long
distances
The Alaskan frontier Is marked Off
by bronze monuments set in concrete
bases. Some Of the states-Ohio and
Michigan. for example-have marked
their boundary lines with stones set
I'D al every mile many 50 IS A-A
the other hand. have no adequate
boundary markings.
WashingfOn Used Monuments
As far back as 1871. George Wash
ington made use OF boundary stones
instead Of blaZed trees in fixing the
limits Of the District OF Columbia
Thirty-six OF the 40 stones can still
be found, sunk deep into the ground
and with the carving half er1aced-
The District survey is set slightly
crooked. but this was probably not
president Washington's mistake, as
he supervised the work only in gen
eral way.
Widespread use OF stone monuments
in original surveys would have pre-
vented most American boundary
trouble Some Of the states fixed
their lines by such landmarks as a
group OF white oak trees" the road
by Seth Sheldon's," and the wzding
place in a river where q large rock
is 20 be seen al low tide" Such marks
have caused all kinds OF complies
lions. The white oak trees would be
cut down for firewood, regardless OF
dates or marks Seth would die and
nobody would rememb Der who he was
or where he lived The stone IN the
river would be moved BY some person
with an innocent desire to be useful
and the case would rest in the courts
for years.