Welcome (yes, it's me)

Welcome to the Blog of the Santa Clara County Surveyor being brought to you by Gwen Gee, PLS, CFedS.







We hope this will provide you updates and handy information about our office.















Monday, November 29, 2010

USPLSS - 2009 Manual of Instructions

Yes, the new Manual of Instructions 2009 is out and available on the ACSM website.  I do have the new manual and it is quite an upscale from the 1973 Manual.  Check out these links to the Manual.

For general information:
http://blmsurveymanual.org/index.html

For more details about the content, check this link out...
(there are some videos and PDF's to add to your library)
http://blmsurveymanual.org/intro.html

And the errata is where you'll find some revision/corrections to the 2009 Manual
(my complements on getting this out on the Internet so quickly)
http://blmsurveymanual.org/errata.asp

So, if you're wondering what's the difference between the the two Manuals or trying to decide if it's worth the extra precious money for the 2009 Manual, my vote would be "yes".  To see the differences between the two Manuals, check out the "Crosswalk" link below:
http://blmsurveymanual.org/resources.html

Well now that you have hopefully decided to buy the 2009 Manual.  Be at ease that a new Public Lands Survey System Foundation (PLSSF) has been created in a joint effort of the USDI Bureau of Land  Management (BLM) and the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM).

The Foundations efforts include educational programs, printing and distribution of several documents and books, scholarships, project funding, and grants; all of which must benefit the preservation and knowledge about the Public Lands Survey System

http://blmsurveymanual.org/plss.html

Enjoy these links and the 2009 Manual.
Did I mention the best part?  It's in color and the font is much easier to read.
It's a tad bigger and a lot better.

Gwen

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

County Cadastral Maps

The County Cadatral Maps are available in PDF or TIFF.
You can use these for determining the County Grid which is a key way to search for maps, recorded and unrecorded, County transit books, County level books, just to name a few.
They are also the only way to search for maps that are NOT in the current Record Map database.
Until that time comes that we input maps prior to our database, the Cadastral Map is the one of the secret keys to finding such lessor known things like "vault maps". 
So if you're interested, email me and let me know what format you'd like.

TTFN
Gwen

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Government Plats are now available (for free, didn't I mention that?)

We have completed scanning all of the government plats by township.
Our scanning expert touched up the images and they look great.  Being historical, the maps did show their wear and tear from being handled over the years.

They are available to you in various ways.  All the plats images will fit on a CD or flash drive.
If you are by our office, stop in and you can get them.

We may post them on our County Surveyor's website also but they are in line for that just as the Corner Records are.

These government plat images will be sent to BLM so they can post it on their website.  Next???? Well we're just not sure at the moment.  Some thoughts would be to do the field notes next or the rancho maps.
Ideas?  Thoughts?  Comments?  All are welcomed.

Gwen