which_chick | (no subject)

I'm sure you're all good and tired of this by now, but I'm not.

Now that we have the original warrants and some understanding of how property was transferred way back in history, the question remains in my mind, and I know in the minds of at least one of ya'll... Where were the original houses, cabins, grounds, boundaries, and other relics of lost time? (If any.) People have been trying to live here (unsuccessfully) for rather a while but there are no "old" buildings or anything. There are no houses. What is up with that? Shouldn't there be SOMETHING left from these previous owners?

Maybe.

First off, we built an impoundment (known to normal people as a "lake") in the late 1960's, inundating some of the ground that was not, originally, inundated. Fun With Gimp brings you the following reassuring picture:

From this, it looks like at least some of the tract boundaries are not underwater at the current time. What fun!

Now, note also that the property has been timbered. A lot. The Four Foors were timber men, for example. We cut down all the trees, ourselves, too. So there's twice at the very least. Timbering tears up the ground pretty damn nicely and might remove or destroy any informational piles of rocks that might possibly have existed to mark survey points or boundaries.

But let's pretend that we are going to be able to locate some of these markers. Let's pretend. Just work with me here. Let's pretend further that we are going to be able to discern these INTENTIONAL piles of rocks from other, geology-of-happenstance piles of rocks that dot the bloody landscape, said piles of rocks being reason #1 that we got the place for a pittance rather than having to pay real money.

The points of property that we should be able to locate are as follows:

From the Evans tract: The upper right post and the corner of Evans and Howard (internal corner, right hand side) tracts.

From the Howard tract: Lower left corner (shared with Evans), upper right corner (shared with Hanks), all three of stupid points (shared with Hanks)in upper left corner.

From the Hanks tract: All of them. In particular, the ones contiguous with our perimeter should be locate-able.

Now, looking again at the "simulated - with lake" picture above, bear in mind that the left hand side of the green triangle represents THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN and it is therefore UPHILL from where I sit. It's also rather some distance from vehicular conveyance, assuming you like your suspension functional, your axle in one piece, and your oil pan intact. (Various deeds give reference to and "use of" the road at the top of the mountain but it is not an easy-driving road at the best of times.) The easiest and most legal way to get to the upper left corner of the tract is on foot and it's roughly a three mile walk (including a nice-sized climb) to get there. Also, there's nothing very interesting there. If you've ever seen the white blazes and metal tree tags of the state forest line, you do not need to go visit this section of the tract. The lower left corner of the green tract, which is rather more vehicle-accessible, should have in it somewhere the Evans corner. However, the mountain is kind of steep in that section plus also cliffs and snakes. It's not my first choice for spotting boundary markers.

The upper right corner (where the lake is) of the green tract is VERY accessible by vehicle and everything there represents a fairly minimal walk over what passes for reasonably level ground in these parts. The four points of the Hanks tract (lower right, upper right before the angle, tippy top point, and top angle-change point) will be relatively easy to search for. Not sure how locate-able they are, but they should be easy to LOOK for. They bound either the Old PA Turnpike or the State Forest, so odds are good that "the neighbors" haven't been out moving the bounds in the dark of night.

And finally, the Howard tract. When I was a child, a mere pup, I was a-strolling in the woods with my father, a great man for strolls. Typically, we strolled around the pond (impoundment), but every now and again, we would stroll elsewhere. On one of these occasions, we were following something very like A Road but not exactly, quite possibly more of A Path. It was in the woods, between his house and the next one up the way (Yuvola's at the time), well behind the power company lines, whereupon we came across a peculiar pile of stone. It was a very peculiar and man-made looking pile of stone, odd enough that I remember it to this day many years later. And we walked along some more and came, again, to ANOTHER peculiar pile of stone. It was quite strange, finding those piles of stone, along the path which we were walking. And I spake thusly to my father: These piles of stone, what are they FOR? And he answr'd me not. I am wondering if those piles of stones could be for the dipshit corner arrangement of the Hanks/Howard properties.

If I go exploring, see, I have a garmin that makes me wee, twee maps of the places my feet go. It's got a GPS and stuff. Garmin walks make MAPS. Maps, see, that I could then clip and scale and make to match my existing map.

I left the deed descriptions at the office. Some of them make reference to piles of rock, to trees, to piles of rock marking where trees used-to-be, etc. It's all very informative and I totally should have brought them home so that I could do more with this. My bad. Anyway, were it me, I would START with the easy corners of the Benjamin Hanks tract. They're close by, an easy walk over fairly navigable land.

The piles of stone on Tar Kiln Run (noted in the deed from Weicht to us) are still there as of this past spring when I saw them in person. However, those stones do not mark anything of interest vis a vis THESE tracts. They might let you know that you were NEAR the upper left corner of the Hanks tract, though.