The monument record

Recitations

Utah Code Annotated 17-23-17.5 (2)(a) Any land surveyor making a boundary survey of lands within this state and utilizing a corner shall, within 90 days, complete, sign, and file with the county surveyor of the county where the corner is situated, a written record to be known as a corner file for every public land survey corner and accessory to the corner which is used as control in any survey by the surveyor, unless the corner and its accessories are already a matter of record in the county.

Utah Code Annotated 17-23-16(3) In all cases, missing corners must be reestablished with reference to the United States Manual of Surveying Instructions.

1973 Bureau of Land Management Manual of Surveying Instructions ¶ 4-23 “…The year number of the date when [the corner is] established is placed on the south.”

Compliant practices

Suppose a utility project destroys the brass cap marker and one accessory shown on a prior monument record or file. Typically the County Surveyor would remark the position with a durable marker stamped according to the BLM Manual of Surveying Instructions Chapter 4 including the year. Where either a monument or an accessory is altered, the monument record must be appended.

I have observed the practice of thorough monument records including a running appendix of corner status changes in Idaho, Wyoming and Minnesota but not in Utah though it is required. A number of counties in Utah do maintain monument records, but they do not meet the specifications of all the laws and regulations cited in the recitation section entirely. Salt Lake County largely neglects the accessory requirement. Davis County needs to improve on the geodetic coordinates listed. None of these counties in addition to Utah and Weber counties maintain a history of corner status changes to monuments or accessories.