60.84 Monuments.

(1g) Definition. In this section, “professional land surveyor" means a professional land surveyor licensed under ch. 443.

(1r) Survey, contract for. The town board may contract with the county surveyor or any professional land surveyor to survey all or some of the sections in the town and to erect monuments under this section as directed by the board.

(2) Bond. Before the town board executes a contract under sub. (1r), the county surveyor or professional land surveyor shall execute and file with the town board a surety bond or other financial security approved by the town board.

(3) Monuments.

(a) Monuments shall be set on section and quarter-section corners established by the United States survey. If there is a clerical error or omission in the government field notes or if the bearing trees, mounds, or other location identifier specified in the notes is destroyed or lost, and if there is no other reliable evidence by which a section or quarter-section corner can be identified, the county surveyor or professional land surveyor shall reestablish the corner under the rules adopted by the federal government in the survey of public lands. The county surveyor or professional land surveyor shall set forth his or her actions under this paragraph in the U.S. public land survey monument record under sub. (4).

(b) All monuments set under this section are presumed to be set at the section and quarter-section corners, as originally established by the United States survey, at which they respectively purport to be set.

(c) To establish, relocate, or perpetuate a corner, the county surveyor or professional land surveyor shall set in the proper place a monument, as determined by the town board, consisting of any of the following:

1. A stone or other equally durable material, not less than 3 feet long and 6 inches square, with perpendicular, dressed sides and a square, flat top. As prescribed by the town board, the top shall be engraved with either of the following:

a. A cross formed by lines connecting the corners of the top.

b. If the monument is set at a section corner, the number of the section or, if set at a quarter-section corner, “1/4S".

2. A 3-inch diameter iron pipe, not less than 3 feet long, with pipe walls not less than one-quarter inch thick, galvanized or coal-charred to prevent rust. The pipe shall have a flat plate, screwed to the top, engraved as prescribed in subd. 1. The pipe shall have a suitable bottom plate or anchor.

3. An equivalent monument agreed upon by all parties of the contract.

(d) A monument under par. (c) shall be set 2 1/2 feet in the ground. If the monument is located in a highway, the top of the monument shall be even with or below the surface of the highway.

(4) U.S. public land survey monument record. The county surveyor or professional land surveyor shall prepare a U.S. public land survey monument record setting forth a complete and accurate record of any monument erected on section and quarter section corners under this section, including the bearings and distances of each monument from each other monument nearest it on any line in the town. The U.S. public land survey monument record and a map of any additional monuments set shall be recorded in the office of the register of deeds or filed in the office of the county surveyor of the county in which the surveyed land is located and of the adjoining county if a monument is located on the county line.

History: 1983 a. 532; 2013 a. 358.