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From The Pit
an archaeological view of gravin'
Given that this is my first installment of this series I feel it is important that you know a little about me and my background I have been working on getting into the paleontology field most of my life. In 2000 I discovered a training program in archeology here in Arkansas and thought it would be good cheap field experience. Having almost completed this program I choose to map a cemetery for my Certified Site Surveyor project. It was the presentation of these results that brought me to the attention of the AGP. I was then asked to put this series together to aid the project in recording and preserving the history of these hallowed grounds. I intend to start with the basics so as to be of help even to the beginner. Call it a "gravin' training manual with an twist of archeology if you like" With that out of the way it is on to our first lesson: Legal descriptions and finding land owners.
When I first heard about legal descriptions I had a hard tine grasping how the worked but soon discovered they are very simple if read backwards. Township, range, section can be obtained from a Topographic map. Google Earth now has a great tool to download the topographic maps. From there it gets to divisions within a section.
The grid available at http://rodregez.tripod.com/AGP/legal_grid.GIF is divided into typical divisions that land would be to enable the learning process I will give you the answer to number 2 and then give the rest at the end of next weeks post. Number 2 is NE ¼ , NE ¼, NE ¼ of sec , Township , Range
From there you can call the assessor's office in the county you are dealing with or go to http://www.actdatascout.com/
Choose the county you want then choose S-T-R type in your Section-Township-Range then look through results to find one that fits your legal. You now have a land owner name and address now use the phonebook or internet to find a phone number and contact them.
till next week this is Clay Garretson saying keep on gravin'
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