Property Corner via Google Maps? No!

A tech Q&A column in the Star Tribune (Minneapolis/St. Paul) had Randy Salas respond to a question about finding corners of a property by going to Google Map Mania and suggesting, per Mike Pegg, that the queriers try ACME Mapper. While I’m sure this was all done in good faith, the message about the validity of such work didn’t seem to come through.

That’s where registered land surveyor Thomas Veenker, land survey coordinator for Aitkin County, Minn. chimed in. He notes that you can use Google’s database to find such coordinates, but finding them at home with a handheld GPS is innaccurate. The creator of ACME Mapper points out that lat/lon are not legally binding descriptions of corner locations (those are based of distance and direction from a survey monument).

This is a great teachable moment and I’m pleased (1) a land surveyor piped up, (2) how surveying is done was described and (3) Salas offers a lesson:

So, the lesson here is not to use online mapping tools as legally binding applications but as the helpful aids they are intended to be…