"Remove not the ancient landmark"

In October of 2002, I was really hard up for help so I employed a couple of preachers....Actually I was so convincing on how much fun I had digging holes and setting survey monuments that they just had to get in on it!

Rev. David Brimm was holding us a revival at the Junction Hill Pentecostal Church.  He is the brother-in-law of our pastor, Rev. Dwain Galiher.  I had visited with Dwain and David about my work and they were interested in seeing an "ancient landmark" as mentioned  Deut. 19:14, Deut. 27:17 and Prov. 22:28.  I was going to perpetuate an old corner I had found in previous work with an aluminum pipe monument, so I asked them if they would like to "go along for the ride".  They readily accepted and on a Saturday morning, after a hearty breakfast at McD's, they were rarin' to get to work!

Dwain Galiher and David Brimm

The corner was in Texas County, on the south side of Highway Y, just east of the intersection of Highway 137.  For you survey savvy folks...the corner common to Sections 9,10,15,16 (J-13), T28N, R8W.  This corner was unique because County Surveyor Sutton, who had set the corner based on original General Land Office evidence, had placed "memorials" below the stone.  He said in his notes "Some pieces of brown glass in bottom and pieces of charcoal under stone."  When we started digging out the hole to set the aluminum monument, we found shards of brown glass and also small pieces of charcoal about the size of pencil erasers.  When I found the corner originally, the stone was loose in the ground so I dug below it and found the broken neck of a whiskey bottle.

While digging the hole for the monument, we hit bedrock at about a foot and a half.  I tried to break it up with the spud bar but it was not budging.  So...We rammed the monument in with rocks and earth and built a substantial cairn of stones around it.  I think Dwain and David were just happy to get it in the ground!!

One of the original General Land Office witness trees from 1848 was still standing and alive.  In the background picture above and in the picture below is the 29" diameter White Oak witness tree with an open blaze scar.  In 1848, this tree was 10" in diameter.

We blazed new witness trees, much in the same manner as the 1848 surveyor and attached a "Witness Tree" sign to prevent (hopefully) anyone from cutting the tree down.

The blaze is cut with an ax past the bark and cambium layer to the wood part of the tree.  The cambium is the part of the tree that is living and the wood is basically dead (this is the reason you can have living hollow trees.)  A "WT" is cut into the wood with a scribe and over the years the tree will scar over the blaze and grow into the "WT".  It has been by experience that most of the time the wood will rot away, leaving a "mirror" image of the WT (TW) in the scar.

Below is the Certified Land Corner Document that I filed for this corner.