The iPhone compass app came in handy when searching for property boundaries
Armed with a plat map and an iPhone, I was able to find the corners of my property. As a matter of fact, I found the iPhone was more accurate than most consumer level GPS devices when it came to using perhaps the most basic of all navigational tools—the compass!
As mentioned in a previous post, my land originally came with a plat map that showed compass headings and distances between marked points on the property’s boundary. Over the years, many of the original survey markers (steel rebars, spikes, surveyor’s tape, etc) have been covered with weeds and tall grass, blown away, or moved by animals and tractors cutting the grass. Finding the markers again years later turned out to be difficult. But, with a plat map, you have some clues on where they were originally placed. I learned that ½” rebar were often struck into the ground and marked overhead (usually on a tree branch) with surveyor’s tape that you can view from a distance. Even if the tape blew away you still had the rebar marking the spot. Usually, that rebar is marked on the plat map.
To get from point to point, read the plat map's numbers
To find my boundaries, I had to first find a starting point. According to my plat map’s legend (not shown in example), I learned that 1 rebar was planted near the street and a fence post. Then, to get from that first point to the next point, the surveyor placed some numbers on the boundary line. At first, I had no idea what was meant by 228 00’01″…until it kicked in: 228 is a magnetic compass heading in numerical degrees. We know that West is the same as 270degrees, East is 90degrees, South is 180 and North is 0 (or 360) as shown on a compass. The 228 shown on the map is a compass heading for a South West course (you can ignore the 00’01″ numbers as those are for more precise navigation that is useless with a traditional compass. We’re just trying to get an estimate of where our boundaries lie, so the 228 number is good enough for this purpose). The 445.06′ means you walk from the first point to the next point at exactly 445.06 feet. You simply stand at the first point, lock in your compass heading (in this case, 228) and walk 445.06 feet. Chances are, that once you get to the end of 445 feet, you can look down and find a marker of some sort. I was able to find mine. Note: In an upcoming post, I’ll talk about how you can use Google Earth to help find your property boundaries, including using the ruler tool to figure out distances between 2 points.
Don’t have a traditional compass? You can use your iPhone! It comes with a compass app under the Utilities icon. Don’t have an iPhone? You can use a GPS…but I found that most of the common entry level GPS systems out there don’t display the compass numbers, only the cardinal directions like N, NW, S, SW, E, etc. What you want are numerical headings like 270, 228, 145, etc. It seems the more expensive and higher end GPS models will get you that, but, there’s no reason to buy a GPS just to use it as a compass when you could just buy a traditional “wet” compass from Walmart or nearly any camping store for next to nothing.