What Lies Beneath...

This is not a horror story, based on a movie, like the title would suggest. It is merely a recounting of going beyond appearances and finding out...."What Lies Beneath".

On August 23, 1894, Howell County Surveyor, Thomas Franklin (T.F.) Adams established the South Quarter-Corner of Section 35, Township 25 North, Range 8 West. You can see physically where this corner is on Google Maps by clicking HERE.

Referring to the image of the survey below, (Recorded in Survey Record Book B at Page 218) the corner would be referenced as "F" and is highlighted on the plat on the right-hand page. Highlighted on the left-hand page is the record of what Mr. Adams set as a monument for the corner and the witness trees he took as accessories to the corner. I probably need to interpret for all the non-surveyor blog readers (and maybe some of the surveyors....)

The dittos before the "F" denote "Corner at". "San stone" is...Sand Stone. Then Adams dimensions the stone in inches 24x11x6 which is 24 inches long x 11 inches wide x 6 inches thick. By past experience of finding other "Adams" stones, I suspected that if this stone was found, it would have about 6 inches of the 24 inch length visible above ground.

Between the lines where the stone is recorded, to the far right, is the record of the witness trees that Adams took to "witness" the position of the stone, in case it ever was destroyed. It was typical to mark the trees in some fashion, either by a "blaze" or a "hack" cut into the tree with an ax.

The trees Adams took as witnesses are as follows:
B oak 5  N 15 E 143
(5" dia. Black Oak, North 15° East, 143 links or 143 x .66 feet = 94.4 feet)

P oak 5 N 7½ W 151
(5" dia. Post Oak, North 7½° West 151 links or 151 x .66 feet = 99.7 feet)

Now most people would calculate and say "That's almost 122 years since those witness trees were referenced. There's no way they could still be alive!" (There's even some surveyors that would say this...) If you've been in the business as long as I have, you know that Post Oak trees are notoriously long-lived and in most conditions, Veeeeery slow growing. Black Oaks on the other hand, in most conditions, grow faster and larger and die quicker. And there is the fact that Black Oaks are more marketable for timber than Post Oaks. So I had hopes that the Post Oak witness tree could still be standing.

I had ascertained the general area of the corner by GPS distance ties to other "known" corners east and west. When I navigated to the area with my GPS, I found an old Bois D'arc or Hedgeapple fence corner post with old fences east, west and north. There was a cow pasture south of the fence corner and forest with fairly large trees north of the fence corner. (See the Google Map link)

I started out by using my compass and taking a bearing of N 7½° W from the old Bois D'Arc post. I taped out the distance of 99.7 feet (151 links) to where the post oak "should be". Lo and Behold, about six feet from where I measured out was a large Post Oak tree!

The Post Oak measured 19" in diameter which meant, if it was the Adams' witness tree, it had only grown 14" in diameter or 7" in radius in 122 years! This calculates out to be 1/16" of growth (width of the tree growth ring) per year. Again, from other living Post Oak witness trees I have found, this is entirely possible.

When I measured back from the tree toward the fence corner, I was about 6-7 feet out in the pasture, south of the post.

From that position, I again used my compass and took a bearing of N 15° E and taped out 94.4 feet (143 links) to see if I could find any evidence of the 5" Black Oak. At about 95½ feet, I found the stumphole where the Black Oak had stood.

Stumpholes do not show up good in pictures. But in the picture above, at the base of the dogwood with the machete stuck in it, is the Black Oak stumphole. I cleared the leaves away and then I could see where the lateral roots had grown into the ground. I could also see the "ground heave" where the tree growth had pushed the dirt and stones outward as it grew. (In the background, above the machete handle, you can see the Post Oak witness tree.)

Now...I had evidence of both witness trees...so...Where was the Sand Stone? The position where the Post Oak and the Black Oak stumphole "witnessed" the corner to be, was in the pasture...Which was (to use the old colloquialism) as bare and smooth as a baby's bottom.

Here's where we find out "What Lies Beneath..."

I grabbed a sharp-shooter shovel out of my truck and went to work. First, I just probed with the sharp-shooter to see if there was a stone within a foot or so of the ground surface. Sure enough, I hit several stones, which in the Missouri Ozarks, is not that hard to do. I started removing the grass sod and dirt until several of the stones were exposed. I began to dig around them and remove the ones that were either too small or not Sand Stone.

As I widened the hole, I hit a larger stone and could tell by the way the shovel scraped that it was a Sand Stone. When I pried it loose, I could see that it was approximately the right width and thickness but was way, way too short. However, when I examined it further, I could see that the top was very flat with sharp edges, like it had been broken off. The bottom of the stone was naturally rounded like a normal stone would appear.

At this time, I was totally convinced that I had found Adams' Sand Stone that had been broken off by farming activity. There was one final piece of information to be checked...the width and thickness of the stone. The pictures below show how closely the measurements of the found stone matched the dimensions given by Adams.

In these pictures, I had set the stone back in it's original position (before I pried it out) and tamped it in with dirt and rocks.

There were other more technical things that convinced me this was Adams' stone, such as the distances to the Section Corners east and west. However, I believe the "tripod" test of evidence applies to this corner (Surveyors will understand).

So...be careful the next time you're walking through the cow pasture, dodging "meadow muffins" and "horse apples" because you never know "What Lies Beneath!"