Adirondack property boundary angle - puzzling?

[Bob K]

In looking at maps showing public vs. private land, many boundaries throughout the Adirondacks are oriented at the same angle. It looks like the more vertical line is consistently about 30 deg West of true North, and the more horizontal boundary 90 degrees from that. Why are so many property boundaries at that same angle? It is so far off the magnetic declination (current anyway) that it seems it can’t be meant to be North on a compass. Help – this one has bugged me for a long time and I did a search and came up empty.

[Wldrns]

In looking at maps showing public vs. private land, many boundaries throughout the Adirondacks are oriented at the same angle. It looks like the more vertical line is consistently about 30 deg West of true North, and the more horizontal boundary 90 degrees from that. Why are so many property boundaries at that same angle? It is so far off the magnetic declination (current anyway) that it seems it can’t be meant to be North on a compass. Help – this one has bugged me for a long time and I did a search and came up empty.

I see what you mean in this map. Just a guess.... most of the glacial carved valleys and ridges run SW/NE at approximately this angle. Could it be that it was easiest to divide and align property boundaries along the natural features rather than true or mag N/S?

[Pete_Hickey]

I would suspect that it goes back to the very earliest times.. things like the totten-crossfield purchase, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if current boundaries fit nicely within their boundaries.

[ken999]

What Peter said...if you look at the old Survey maps from back in the day, you will see that the orientations are similar.

[Adkleaddog]

I would suspect that it goes back to the very earliest times.. things like the totten-crossfield purchase, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if current boundaries fit nicely within their boundaries.

I agree as well...

It's much easier to survey off of existing lines and corners

[Wldrns]

I agree as well...

It's much easier to survey off of existing lines and corners

Well yes, but the question is why are the original existing lines and corners set up as they are... we're back to the odd angle and maybe the general run of the landscape question.

[Paradox6]

I haven't researched it in New York, but I suspect many of the lines run the way they do because of the "ad hoc" manner in which large undeveloped tracts of land were originally sold off and initially developed. If I remember my history correctly the Durants, Hutchinsons and other early large land owners were railroad people and involved in much of the initial development of the Adirondacks. Basically, states granted or "patented" large tracts of land to railroad companies, and sometime other companies, in exchange for the railroads running track and encouraging development in different parts of the state. The tracts of land did not necessarily relate to where the track was to be run, they were given undeveloped land so the companies could sell it off to pay for laying track. I've seen turn of the century deeds in Texas where hundreds of thousands of acres were sold for a few pennies an acre. The original patent descriptions were usually pretty rudimentary, from the shore of a stream to a peak, to a lake, etc. In order to sell off the land, companies would come in and survey it to identify what they had and to divide and sell it. The surveyors were for the most part working for private companies and were pretty much free to design their mapping system and conventions however they wanted. There may have been previous surveys that were just stopped being used.

In some areas the companies would make their survey maps part of the deed records for the county. Once the records were where anyone could identify and refer to them, it became a form of shorthand to describe a piece of land as e.g., "Section 30 of the XXX Railroad Company Survey, filed on such a date." It became easier that identifying a particular starting point for describing a property and then describing by "metes and bounds" the individual property lines. Surveying was a fairly expensive task and once the parcels were divided there was little reason for anyone to go back and create a new survey system and the old descriptions became the baseline identification system. Once you get west of the Mississippi, many of those states use a fairly uniform grid system of "township" and "range" lines. The grids were largely legislated into place before large scale development took place and before much of the land was patented by the states, a lot of which did not take place until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Texas, California and New Mexico, because of their Spanish origins, still have grid systems, in some places, that go back to original Spanish land grants in the 1600's, mixed in with multiple railroad company surveys.

[lumberzac]

Well yes, but the question is why are the original existing lines and corners set up as they are... we're back to the odd angle and maybe the general run of the landscape question.

I think Pete’s answer is the main reason for the divisions. Now for the why. The original purchases were at such an odd angle. Keep in mind that what I’m typing is speculative, but is what seems to make sense in my mind. The early land “purchases” in the Adirondacks date back to colonial times when the original Albany County was divided. Two huge counties (the names escape me at the moment) were formed which occupied most of northern New York. The counties were simply drawn on a map with little or no regard to local geography, because no one really new what was there (at that time the Catskills and Hudson Highlands were thought to be much larger than the Adirondacks). This is where the speculation comes in; the only known geographical features in northern New York were Lake Champlain, the Great Lakes, and the Saint Lawrence River. I think the Saint Lawrence is the key. The odd angle runs almost perpendicular to it.

After the American Revolution the region was split up into land parcels and sold off. The region was still unknown and the only maps were the old colonial maps, so it makes sense that they would have used those boundaries as guides in forming new ones. It wasn’t until the Colvin surveys in the late 1800s that there was any real understanding of the regional geography and by that time property lines had already been drawn and used for 100+ years, so there was no reason or real need to change them.

[Wldrns]

...the only known geographical features in northern New York were Lake Champlain, the Great Lakes, and the Saint Lawrence River. I think the Saint Lawrence is the key. The odd angle runs almost perpendicular to it.

Perpendicular and parallel. Of course the Great Lakes and the NE angle of the St Lawrence drainage were formed by the same glacial forces that carved the Adirondack ridges and valleys.

[Adkleaddog]

Ok..I've inquired with a majority of my coworkers, (foresters, rangers, engineers and the like) and so far no one has an answer. Everyone I spoke with had the same theories that's been discussed so far....geography, watercourses, the difference between here and out west.....It's got everyone talking and wondering!

I think in time we'll have an answer...maybe.

[Adkleaddog]

The answer!!!

Here we go!


From our surveyors:

Well do you want the short or long version??? Actually, most of the Adirondacks outside of the central portion are oriented to magnetic north( circa 1792 ). The central Adirondacks up to the St Lawrence/Franklin-Herkimer/Hamilton/western Essex county line, are based upon the orientation of the "Line of Mile Trees" which was the baseline for the partitioning of the 1,150,000 acre Totten & Crossfield purchase. This line was run in about 1771 in a NW 30 deg bearing. A brief look at the departments "Adirondack Land Map" will prove enlightening on the relationship of the old land tracts.
The much larger 3,934,899 acre, Macomb's purchase was surveyed in 1791 and was run north/south matching the adjoining 665,000 acre Old Military Tract (1781). I could go on with other examples but I think the Land Map better answers the question.