Surveying Spotlight
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New Mexico was surveyed under the U.S. Public Land Survey System (PLSS) which replaced the British system of Metes and Bounds. Monuments such as the stone shown on the left were used to mark section corners in a Township. This corner in particular was set in the early 1900s near Capitan, NM and is distinguished as a corner common to four sections by its markings. Markings on a stone such as the one in the picture with notches and grooves indicate the number of miles from the south and east boundaries of the township, respectively. This stone has four groove markings and two notches.
Legal sale of land was made possible by surveying the land, setting boundaries, and creating land titles. The Land Ordinance Act of 1785 required land to be divided and was the basis for the PLSS. The following is an excerpt from Land Ordinance Act of 1785 by the Continental Congress:
“Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assembled, that the territory ceded by individual states to the United States, which has been purchased of the Indian inhabitants, shall be disposed of in the following manner: A surveyor from each state shall be appointed by Congress or a Committee of the States, who shall take an oath for the faithful discharge of his duty, before the geographer of the United States, who is hereby empowered and directed to administer the same; and the surveyor under whom he acts.”
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