California Surveyors Forums

Howdy friends,

I am doing some work in Stanislaus County and I came across some monuments. I have never seen any like this before. The discs are riveted to the side of the pipe. In several instances, the surrounding area is paved and in order to identify the monument, I had to dig a relatively large hole to see the monument. Is this a common practice in this area?

Thanks to all.

Happy New Year!

While not common, it is not rare. Here is similar example. Installing one in pavement would be misguided.

It's not so common anymore, but it's certainly not uncommon in surveys through the 70s and 80s. In many cases I've had to remove the tag and reaffix it in order to adequately read the stamping without tearing a huge hole in the pavement. After a while you start to recognize the engineers and surveyors in the area that tended to use side tags and adjust accordingly when retracing their surveys.

Early 70's, Western Sonoma County. We were taught to scrape the top foot or so of iron pipes. One fella would grind a flat and stamp his number (hard to read with rust), another riveted a brass tag such as in Mike's photo. I think both of them had numbers in the 2,000 series, I forget the names and numbers now.

Much more common are the tags affixed with baling wire. Makes it tough to dig down without disturbing the rusted-through wire.

You must have expended all your paint, so as not to have to pack a half full can in your flight bag ;-)