From The Detroit News | By Ken Calverley and Chuck Breidenstein
DETROIT, September 15, 2024 ~ Several years ago, a listener contacted us regarding a property he and his wife had just purchased.
The home was situated on a 10-acre parcel that also contained a barn on the western lot line.
Three weeks into their occupancy, a neighbor strolled down to inform them that 2 feet of the barn’s footprint sat on his 40-acre lot, land on which he was “born and raised”.
The confusion arose in a fairly typical way; the assumed property line had been a fence that devolved into a tree/scrub line over many decades.
A professional survey confirmed the entire building was properly situated on the buyer’s land.
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Surveying is often said to be one of the oldest professions dating back at least 6,000 years to the Egyptians who, for tax purposes and to quell disputes, needed to re-establish property lines whenever the Nile overflowed its banks and deposited rich silt in the crop fields.
The techniques they developed also helped to create canals to assist in the construction of pyramids.
One of the common measuring tools developed early was called a Gunter Chain, 66 feet long and comprised of 100 links delineated at 10-foot intervals with brass tags.
The chains and standard magnetic compasses were the primary tools used to conduct early surveys of the Northwest Territory that included what we now know as Michigan.
In fact, a dispute over the survey determining the southern border of Michigan led to the Toledo War between the Michigan and Ohio territories.
The land in question included then bustling Toledo, the starting point for inland canals that brought commerce farther west than it had ever been.
The compromise to end the dispute was to conduct a new survey using more permanent monuments, ceding the 468 square mile Toledo Strip to Ohio in exchange for the 16,000 square miles of what the Detroit Free Press then dubbed a “region of perpetual snows”, the Upper Peninsula.
The area, also called “a sterile region on the shores of Lake Superior,” would later spark the first major mineral mining rush in North America when huge copper deposits were discovered.
This was the result of work performed during a geological survey expedition conducted by Douglas Houghton.
Surveyors often braved extremely rough conditions as they traversed swamps, bogs and undisturbed forests in an attempt to lay a hypothetical grid over the unsettled land.
In fact, it is rumored that a tussle that ensued when native tribesmen wandered into a survey camp led to the name assigned to that area, Battle Creek.
The primary objective of early surveys was to establish permanent and replicable geographic boundaries.
This required, in Michigan, a north-south line, called a meridian, and an east-west line, referenced as a baseline, from which all other boundaries would evolve.
Our meridian runs from Maumee Ohio straight north to Lake Superior at Sault Ste. Marie and the baseline overlays what Detroiters know as 8 Mile Road and extends west to South Haven.
Thomas Jefferson’s land ordinance called for staking the territories in a manner that would create 6-mile squares divided into 36 square-mile sections per township.
Early surveyors preferred to attempt this work in the winter months when lakes were likely to be frozen and foliage was not an impediment to line-of-sight measurements.
We are reminded of this epic undertaking every time we drive on Baseline Road or visit Meridian Township. Many lakes and cities throughout the state bear the names of those first surveyors to document the locations.
Lot line location is still debated today arising out of various issues ranging from new subdivisions creating building lots to fence locations, overhanging tree branches, shifting rivers, and historic use.
Something as simple as a narrow strip adjacent to a paved drive that one neighbor has unwittingly mowed for 20 years can devolve into a relationship-killing lawsuit.
The advice here is simple; know your boundaries, literally.
And if in doubt, seek the input of a professional like those you can find every day at InsideOutsideGuys.com.
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For more advice, listen to “The Inside Outside Guys” every Saturday and Sunday on 760 WJR from 10 a.m. to noon or contact them at InsideOutsideGuys.com.
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