Charles Eno Corner

 On November 17th of 1909, County Surveyor Charles Eno dug a hole on the south edge of a ridge top in southern Howell County.  He placed a 16"x5"x3" Sandstone in the hole and then tamped it in with dirt, leaving about a third of the stone exposed.  He proceeded to mark a Post Oak witness tree northwest of the stone, 6½ feet.  This stone marked the Quarter Corner common to Sections 19 & 30, Township 22 North, Range 7 West of the 5th Principal Meridian.  Per Surveyor Eno's notes, no evidence of the General Land Office corner, set in 1821, could be found in this location.

On September 18th of 2014, almost 105 years later, I visited the area of the corner set by Surveyor Eno.  By calculating from another corner set by Surveyor Eno (which had been located by LS1454 in 1994) I was sure I was within 15'-20' of Eno's corner.  After searching for about twenty minutes, I located the sandstone shown in the picture below by the pocket tape.

 It was setting cardinal (North-South-East-West) and leaning slightly to the east.  You can't read the tape because of the bad focus but the dimensions of the part sticking out of the ground were 5"x3".  Since it was already leaning, I went ahead and removed the stone and it measured 16" long.  I then replaced the stone.

 The compass bearing to the post oak witness tree was North 69° West at a distance of 6½ feet.  I used my hand compass for the bearing and my pocket tape for the distance and the picture below was what I found.

 The piece of wood lying diagonal in center picture is part of the post oak witness tree.  You can't tell it from the picture but below the piece of wood is a large stumphole, evidenced by small lateral root cavities and a large tap root cavity (typical of post oak).

 The picture above is taken looking across the sandstone, toward the post oak witness tree evidence.

I then utilized my GPS receiver to collect the position of the corner for the purpose of my survey (State Plane Coordinates.)  I really believe I was the first person to visit this corner since Mr. Eno set it.  You ask why?  It was 300'+ south of the fenceline that was generally accepted as being on the section line...in other words, everybody thought that this corner should be 300' north of where I found it.

Whooboy!!!

In spite of the potential problems it may cause; I was extremely happy to find this old corner!

So......I just went ahead and did my little
CORNER HAPPY DANCE!! (To see me dance...Click HERE)