@MikeB wrote:
Don’t expect the platbooks to go away. They are required by the Land Ordinance of 1785, which, to my knowledge, still is very much in force. Surveyors using modern equipment of course use GIS and GPS (along with military stuff, surveying equipment is significantly more accurate than anything you would use for geocaching) but the old platbooks are still sometimes needed for tracking down titles.
Back before the advent of the GPS, Land surveyors used”Rods & Chains” as my grandfather called it I think. He was a State Forester and would cruise timber sales and the sale would be “X” rods by “Y” rods. I can remember a story that they surveyed the whole state in less the 30 days by using rods. This was 25 years ago. I wish I would have listened better.
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