Odd Markers

Just about everything from iron bars to a well-placed pine tree has kept two landowners separated. Even today, countless random objects sit silently guarding the boundaries. Rock cairns were a common marker, but plenty of rusty machinery has been pressed into service.

One odd marker I’ve encountered is an old horse-powered hay rake that sits at the angle of a corner. Who unhooked and dropped it so precisely?

A surveyor once told me he had a job where it turned out a moss-covered pile of logs marked the corner angle square and true. He drove a metal bar into the corner and left the rotten logs, saying they were still performing their job so why bother them?

Old rock walls were the boundary for early pioneers, as were those lovely split-rail fences. Surveyors today still use these as accurate reference points, a testament to those who carefully ran the property lines so long ago.