Snow Creek to DWA Residence

[Hikin_Jim]

This makes sense. If you had a mining claim that was abandoned, ownership would revert to the government. You still have two APN's in one section, but the owner would be the same owner for both APN's.

Some basic fun facts about land surveying:
A chain is 66 feet long.
A section is 5,280 feet (one mile) on each side.
Therefore the four sides of a section are each 80 chains long.
An acre is 10 square chains.
There are (usually) 640 acres per section. Note that Section 27, directly east of Section 28, is 681 acres (for reasons unknown).

And yes they used real chains to measure this stuff. Thus a chain was not only a unit of measure (66 feet) but also a physical object made of metal.

More at:
http://www.blm.gov/or/landrecords/legaldescrip.php
http://websterassessor.org/PageDisplay.asp?p1=2296

HJ

[guest]

Love that old map, thanks for posting.
Now, that curvy line going to a "cabin" looks like it might have been a dirt rd. back then?
The cabin looks like it's quite a ways above the structures of today.
Maybe the old rancher who controlled that part of the mt., including the water, which lead to fights, (C O Barker rings a bell, but not sure).

That west folk of Snow Creek has hundreds of large trees & very wide riverbed.

[Hikin_Jim]

Love that old map, thanks for posting.
Now, that curvy line going to a "cabin" looks like it might have been a dirt rd. back then?
The cabin looks like it's quite a ways above the structures of today.

That old survey map is a work of art. It took a lot of time to make that, and it had to be exacting. You din't have the "undo" function back then. I believe it was probably done in ink on paper.

It does look like that cabin is farther up. It certainly preceded today's structures and water works.

Regarding that old map,

What the heck happened to Section 21 (highlighted in gold). Sections should have 640 acres. Section 21 appears to have 360.8. And Section 27 has 681 acres? What?

Why does the map say "West" (highlighted in light blue). Are we not east of the Survey meridian (on the west flank of San Bernardino Peak). West relative to what?

I suppose all the gymnastics around the SE corner of Section 28 are there because the terrain did not permit the placement of a monument, yes? And so they took some points around the corner from which the corner could be fairly precisely determined. I think. Am I close here?

And there are other weirdnesses as well (highlighted in dark blue and purple). What do these mean?

I suppose that I should get a good book on surveying, which I may. Of course I need to find work right now, and that has to be my first priority. Which reminds me I should stop playing around on this forum.

HJ

[OtherHand]

Jim I can't answer all of your questions, but maybe some of them. As you posted earlier, a Chain is 66 feet. So what are 80 Chains? 5,280 feet. I believe those numbers on the map are the distances the surveyors either ran their survey lines or computed where they should be. The bearings of the lines are also listed. I suspect some of the jogs had to be made due to terrain, but they still placed monuments and then returned to their survey line. Hard old guys! I will hazard a guess that only 360.8 acres in Section 22 remained as public land at that time, so the private land wasn't surveyed or included in that section. But that's just a guess.

What caught my eye was the small square just east of your purple box and labeled "Milners", just NE of the "Boulders". It looks to have been a structure at one time with what looks like a road running to it. I'm more than a little curious if anything remains at that location.