The purpose of this page is to provide notes of interest and other items relating to current or changing ROW research issues.
March 28, 2025 - ROWAlaska.net Website Update -
Wow! This took a long time. But I finally cleaned up some other projects
so it was time to get moving. I presented a session at the ASPLS
Conference (February 19 - 21, 2025) titled "Cleaning
Out the Closet - Odds & Ends". This included two of my
relatively recent projects, "Benka
Lake" and "Orth v.
Largent". My conference session includes a PowerPoint presentation
but only a subset of the files that can be found in the Benka Lake and
Orth v. Largent project folders. When I constructed the Cleaning Out the
Closet web page, I did it in the format that I have used in the past.
This is primarily a summary of file links in a table format. Then I
realized that building a similar table for the Benka Lake and Orth v.
Largent projects was going to be very tedious and both included more
than a hundred files. So I decided to use a utility called
"Snap2HTML" that generates a collapsible HTML summary of file links in a
specific folder. It seems to work fairly well but as with anything new,
I will be watching it for issues. First, I will get these projects
loaded onto the website but hold off for now on the text indexing that
is necessary to search for specific files in these projects. That should
come soon.
October 21, 2024 - ROWAlaska.net Website Update -
It's been quite a while since I've added any new materials to the
website. Initially this was due to scheduling conflicts with other
projects along with personal activities. I committed the ultimate
Alaskan sacrilege by leaving the state in mid-summer for a two-week
cruise around the UK. But, it must have been a good choice as we were
never dampened by a drop of rain the entire time. The other reason there
have been no updates is related to a Bluehost upgrade that crashed the
"Search" page. The Bluehost hosting package that I initially set up was
limited as to the number of files that could be stored. I could see that
I was going to exceed that limit and so upgraded the hosting package in
the beginning of June. It wasn't until yesterday that I was able to find
the problem and with a simple permissions change to one file, the Search
page is now working again. Now I have no excuse to avoid updating the
site!
May 1, 2023 - Campbell Lake Section Line Easement Law
Suit - On September 18, 2022, I wrote a Journal article about
the Alaska Landmine [Follow link to
article below...]. The Landmine is an online Alaskan political
news site that had published a pair of fairly intense stories relating
to right-of-way issues. The first story was about the Stewart Trail and
the other about Campbell Lake, both in the Anchorage vicinity. The
Campbell Lake story had two issues. First was whether Campbell Lake was
a public water accessible to all or whether it was a private lake, to be
used only by lot owners in the surrounding subdivision. The second issue
had to do with the validity of a section line easement that straddles
the line between Sections 14 & 15, Township 12 North, Range 4 West,
SM, both on the north and south sides of the lake. These easements would
provide direct access to the lake. The section line easements were not
shown on the original subdivision plats, however, a current evaluation
of the federal SLE parameters has resulted in a conclusion that these
public rights-of-way, 33-feet wide on each side of the section line, do
in fact exist and have never been vacated. As the validity of these SLEs
was not considered at the time of the original subdivision platting,
they now appear to be in conflict with several very high end homes.
While this was an interesting case study, I initially didn't dwell on it
for a long time as it was an Anchorage problem and not one that I
believed would be cause for concern on a broad scale. At least not for
me. But then I received an email on April 28 with the following
attachment: "Gordon
Franke and John Frost v. Alaska DNR". This law suit, filed
in Federal District Court by two lot owners directly impacted by the
SLEs in part argues that the 1923 Territorial Legislative acceptance of
the RS-2477 grant, creating what we refer to as "federal" section line
easements was a violation of federal law and the lot owners
constitutional rights. [See
April 28, 2023 article by the Alaska Landmine] When you think
about how much and for how long legal access has been provided
throughout the State of Alaska using federal SLEs, the thought that they
might be all declared invalid is a bit concerning. But lets look at the
possibilities: The 2013 Alaska Supreme Court case McCarrey
v. Kaylor" changed everything we thought we knew about Small
Tract patent reservations. ROW and Title professionals always considered
the road and utility easements stated in the patents to be express
reservations that were established by the patent. The Court, however,
found that the patent statements were an offer of a common law
dedication that might not be created if there was no public use over
them while the Small Tract Order was in effect. Another reality that
relates to the federal filing of the Campbell Lake SLE case is that the
federal government considers the SLEs we believe were established by the
1923 Territorial Legislative acceptance to be "unconstructed" RS-2477
trails, and therefore invalid.
On the plus side is the 2016 Alaska Supreme Court case Pursche
v. Matanuska-Susitna Borough. This case holds that “A
‘patent’ is the conveyance by which the federal government passes its
title to portions of the public domain and is [generally] necessary to
accomplish a transfer of ownership from the United States…Once [a
land] patent issues, the incidents of ownership are, for the most
part, matters of local property law to be vindicated in local courts.”
This might suggest, at least from the perspective of the State of
Alaska, that the federal court would not have jurisdiction to hear this
case. And if that happens, I would expect the State courts to uphold our
traditional understanding of "federal" SLEs. Our traditional
understanding is best outlined in the "1969
Opinions of the Attorney General No. 7" regarding Section
Line Dedications for Construction of Highways and the 1975 Alaska
Supreme Court case
Girves v. Kenai Peninsula Borough. This new SLE law suit
will definitely a case to watch!
April 6, 2023 - 19 SLA 1923 - Happy 100th
Anniversary! - George Horton, PLS, CFeds reminded me that on this
date, 100 years ago, the Alaska Territorial Legislature passed Ch 19 SLA
1923 in which it accepted a 4-rod (66 foot) wide section line easement
based on the offer of the federal RS-2477 grant. These are commonly
referred to as "federal" section line easements as opposed to the
100-foot wide "state" SLEs established under A.S. 19.10.010. For many
years, George has been the go to guy at DNR for SLE issues but will be
retiring from DNR Cadastral at the end of April. Have a great retirment
George! The SLEs will miss you!
March 28, 2023 - Hoover Dam:
Nevada/Arizona Border
I was taking a walk with Lisa across the top of Hoover Dam today.
About mid-way on the North side I noticed a gleaming USC&GS
Benchmark labeled "H 174 1935". So it was set as the Hoover Dam
construction was nearing completion. As you would expect, I got down on
one knee to take a photo with my cell phone. As I got back up I noticed
an elderly lady looking at me with concern. (I rarely look at myself in
the mirror any more...) She said, "Are you all right?". I said that I
was a surveyor and I just couldn't help myself and I had to take a
picture of the monument. She said, "well I saw that you were down on
your knees and you know...we are in that age group..." I said "Well,
thank you so much for noticing...". I was hoping that I didn't sound
offended. For those that require a bit more technical detail, the NAD
83(1986) POSITION is 36 00 58.82 - 114 44 14.33 and the elevation is
NAVD 88 ORTHO HEIGHT - 376.389 (meters) 1234.87 (feet) ADJUSTED.
The photo to the right is the BM that I knelt before. To those of you visiting the area I would highty recommend a tour of the Dam and visitor's center. It is mind boggling to view the videos of the dam construction given the year and construction equiptment available. And of course, they were all led by the lowly surveyor! I also added to my National Parks survey control mark pins by purchasing the "Hoover Dam 1935 Benchmark" at the Hoover gift shop. It really makes me wonder how many of these are sold as one would think that the people who would understand what they are purchasing are primarily surveyors. Whatever... I think that will be one of my retirement habits...to collect one from every national park we visit.
December 26, 2022 - U.S. Mineral Surveyors
- Recently, a colleague posed a question regarding location dates and
surface rights for unpatented federal mining claims. I told him that a
key issue was PL 167, the Act of July 23, 1955 aka “Multiple Surface Use
Act” (30 USC 612). Unpatented claims with a valid location date prior to
the Act in most cases would have an exclusive right of use to the
surface. A mining claim located after the Act would be subject to the
rights of the federal government to grant third party uses that did not
interfere with the rights of the mining claimant. If a post Act locator
eventually obtained patent for the claim, they would end up with both
the mineral rights and the surface rights. (Although I haven’t seen an
example of this, I would expect that a patent based on a post 1955
location could be made subject to any surface rights permitted to third
parties by the federal government.)
My colleague also noted that with the recent passing of Richard Heieren
and the 2021 passing of Pat Kalen, both long time Fairbanks land and
mineral surveyors, I was one of four remaining U.S. Deputy Mineral
Surveyors remaining in Alaska, and the only one in Fairbanks. The
2022-2025 Mineral Surveyor Roster listed 19 Mineral Surveyors throughout
the United States. As the last USMS residing in Fairbanks, it almost
feels as if a part of the extensive mining history that Fairbanks is
based on is slowing fading into the past. And with most of the other
remaining USMS growing quite long in the tooth, it appears that that
this area of surveying is coming to a close.
I received my initial appointment in September of 1986. Having spent my
post high school years with a third generation Fairbanks mining family
and starting to pursue education and experience as a surveyor, it only
seemed appropriate to seek an appointment as a U.S. Mineral Surveyor.
The USMS appointment allows a surveyor to perform surveys for patent of
mining claims throughout the federal lands in the US. An appointment as
a USMS for a surveyor residing in Nevada or Montana would still permit
them to perform a patent survey in Alaska or any other state where
federal mining claims existed. Licensing as a Professional Land Surveyor
in any specific state was not required. Wayne Larson, a Fairbanks
professional engineer, operated Larson Mineral Surveys as a USMS
although he was not a licensed professional surveyor in Alaska. His
business card stated “Mineral Patent Surveys Are Our Only Business”.
The opportunity to obtain the USMS appointment was somewhat rare. It
was, in a sense offered on a “market based” schedule rather than annual
basis similar to the state professional land surveyor exams. That is,
when BLM determined that there existed an insufficient number of US
Mineral Surveyors necessary to service the existing or expected backlog
of patent survey requests, they would hold an exam. And you might end up
having to travel a long distance to the exam site. At one time it might
be held in Colorado and another time in Nevada. So, when I heard that a
USMS exam would be held in Anchorage in the spring of 1986, I jumped at
the chance.
It was a two-day exam held April 23 & 24, 1986 at the Anchorage
District Office off of Abbott Loop Road. The first day consisted of
multiple-choice questions, a practical problem and the writing of field
notes and preparation of a preliminary plat. The second day was
dedicated to taking and computing a solar observation for azimuth. I
remember while reading the questions that this exam would cover more of
the Manual of ’73 than I was ever asked as a part of my Alaska land
surveyor exam. There were so few questions relating to federal land
surveys in my PLS exam that it was hard to believe that Alaska was a
PLSS state.
I completed one and only one mineral survey out at Ester for James and
George Lounsbury. The patent was issued on December 21, 2000 and
George told me a few years after the survey was performed that theirs
was the last mining claim patent issued in Alaska prior to the October
1, 1994 Congressional moratorium. It was the family lode claim known as
the Grass Valley aka the Clipper Gold Mine (USMS No. 2493). The survey
was performed in June of 1988 which was almost 2 years after I started
with DOT Right of Way. At the time, I came to the realization that
with a full-time job, performing surveys on the side had the potential
of occupying most of my spare time. I didn’t want it to get in the way
of family life so I decided to not go looking for more survey
work. Also, the claim was a lode mine which meant that I had to
crawl on my hands and knees down a dark, wet tunnel in the hillside to
map it out. I’m not that claustrophobic but I couldn’t help
thinking about how many folk songs had been written about the hundreds
of lives claimed in mining disasters and yet none had been written about
ROW mappers working in public office buildings.
After the congressional moratorium on mineral patents in 1994, BLM
continued to occasionally send a letter to all USMS asking whether they
wanted their appointment extended. It didn’t cost anything so I
always said yes and so I now have a certificate that says I will
continue to have a valid appointment until December 31, 2025.
While BLM issues a very nice certificate of appointment, I can’t help
but think that the days of taking mining claims to patent are long
gone. Oh well…
November 27, 2022 - New R&M Website! - As I
continue to associate part-time with R&M Consultants, Inc., it seems
appropriate to provide a plug for their entirely new and well-designed
web site: www.rmconsult.com.
One fairly unique feature that sets it aside from most other
professional services websites is that it includes background pages for
each and every employee rather than just those in management. While I
consider myself to be somewhat of an introvert, I feel compelled to note
my inclusion on the Right
of Way Services page. The link on my photo then leads
to my personal
page that includes references to projects and presentations
I have been involved in as well as notes relating a few of my
lesser-known characteristics. Links on this page also will serve up a
few papers and presentations that are already included in the rowalaska.net
site. The difference being that the R&M site serves them with better
graphics and in a far more professional format:
November 1, 2022 - Recorder's
Office - Historic Books. A couple of days ago, Eric
Fuglestad, PLS, who retired from DOT&PF Central Region ROW
Engineering in December of 2021, suggested that I provide some
information on the Recorder's Office Historic Books. Those of you who
have spent time performing basic searches with the online system know
that the indices won't include all documents back to and prior to
statehood. Their online "About"
page says " We have a Grantor/Grantee alphabetical index, as well as
a location index (by legal description) which reflect documents
recorded from 1970 to current. Searching for information prior to 1970
requires a search of Historic Books." Actually, I have performed
test searches prior to 1970 and found documents, but I can't say for
certain how far back they go. So, that leads us to the Historic Books
Search Menu which can be a bit tricky without spending a lot of time
becoming familiar with it. I had always wished that the Recorder's
site provided the ability to perform random text searches. For example,
you can perform a "Document
Type Search" and you are provided with a list of document
types that you might search for. But if it isn't on the list, it's
not of much use. What if I wanted to see if anyone had ever
recorded a "Boundary Agreement" and I just wanted to see what their
format looked like. There is no easy way to type in "Boundary Agreement"
as a search type to see what is out there.
In July of 2016, Ryan Quigley, PLS, also at the time with DOT&PF
Central Region ROWE and now with DNR Cadastral, obtained a hard drive
copy of the Recorder's Office Historic Books current as of that date.
The data consisted of 127,188 TIF files in 1,821 folders for a total
size of 297GB. Ryan then proceeded to OCR the files using Adobe
Acrobat while I did the same using another program. Even on my not
terribly ancient desktop computer, the OCR exercise commenced on
November 26, 2016 and ran almost 24/7 to March 23, 2017 before it was
completed. I then paired my copy of the files with an open source
portable text indexing search engine named "DocFetcher" that can perform
random text searches on the text layer of a mass of .pdf files.
Note that prior to 1915, documents submitted for recording were
originally copied into the record book by longhand, so there will be
files in the Historic Books that could not be OCR'd. As my intent of
indexing the Historical Books was to locate documents related to highway
rights-of-way, I tested the following DocFetcher search terms:
(Keep terms as short as possible to get more hits.)
"Alaska Road Commission" - Hits: 336
"Road Commission" - Hits: 380
"Right of Way Deed" - Hits: 465
"easement and right of way" - Hits: 3,222
"easement road"~20 - Hits: 2,820 (easement within 20 words of road)
"Bureau of Public Roads" Hits: 774
"Public Roads" Hits: 1,782
"Alaska Rural Rehabilitation" Hits: 651
"Rural Rehabilitation" Hits: 688
"Homestead Location" Hits: 474
"Relinquishment of Homestead" Hits: 16
Eric Fuglestad wanted me to post that any person with a desire to set up
their own indexed search of the Historic Books database can contact
Central Region ROW Engineering staff and arrange to bring in a hard
drive of sufficient size and they will provide a you with a copy. You
may find that the Recorder's Office Search Menu for the Historic Books
already meets your needs. But on the other hand, without my indexed
search engine, I would have never found the 1913 Bill of Sale from the
Alaska Road Commission for "One
white horse named Sam". You might also consider OCRing and
re-indexing the files with more advanced software for better results.
October 16, 2022 - Today I updated and uploaded
my paper titled "Alaska
Rights-of-Way & Boundaries - Terms & Definitions with
References to Alaska Court Decisions". This paper was
prepared with the recognition that it is better to have legal
definitions directly related to Alaska case law, where they are
available, than to rely entirely on a "Learned Treatise" such as Brown,
Clark and so on. Brown and Clark are great references, but they
draw upon law throughout the country which may or may not be all
consistent with the rulings of our Alaska Supreme Court. Use with
caution...and consult with an attorney if necessary!
September 18, 2022 - Near the bottom of these
notes on May 14, 2022 I posted an item discussing the 2021 Alaska
Supreme Court Opinion, Ahtna,
Inc v. State of Alaska DNR/DOT&PF. This case is
about the status of the RS-2477 ROW along the Klutina Lake trail near
Copper Center. I noted that in December of 2021, the Supreme Court
granted a petition for rehearing and withdrew their 2021 opinion.
This last Friday on September 16, 2022, the Supreme Court issued their
revised
opinion on the case. The Court reaffirmed that prior
aboriginal title did not invalidate the RS-2477 ROW and concluded as a
matter of law that the State's ROW was not limited to ingress and egress
as they had stated in the initial opinion. But it is not that
easy. The scope of use of the RS-2477 trail is a question of fact
and so there will continue to be controversy and argument regarding
allowable uses of the ROW. I will add more in the future but at
this point I believe I need to read the latest opinion several more
times before I fully grasp the outcome.
September 18, 2022 - Dawn
of the Mapmaker: The Surveyor Girl and the Forbidden Knowledge
: I don't think we are going to see a Netflix series in the near future
that focuses on the mystical adventures and bravery of land surveyors,
but who knows. I seem to be finding more and more literary
references to land surveyors that dwell on the fantasy and supernatural
aspects of our profession, of which there are many.
This first reference is an anime eBook by Akira Nashiki: Synopsis - "
Knowledge is power, and that most certainly applies to maps too. Few
appreciate that more than Unen, a 15-year-old girl so slender that she
often gets mistaken for a young boy. She aspires to be a good enough
cartographer so she can catch the attention of the king, who would
then sponsor her on a journey to map the world, and indeed, she's
already being recognized by the name Sparrow Eyes for her talent at
drawing incredibly detailed maps. While such maps may be a boon to
some, they are a threat to others, as Unen finds out the hard
way." Review - "We take incredibly detailed
maps for granted these days, so it's easy to lose sight of just how
powerful maps actually are as tools. That is the crux of the premise
behind the first novel in this new e-book series: that maps have
enough power to be worth killing over, thus making the job of a
cartographer far more dangerous and adventuresome than one would
normally expect."
The next literary reference was totally unexpected. It comes
from the latest bestseller by Stephen King titled Fairy
Tale. One of the primary characters in the book is an old
man who had an earlier career as a forester/land surveyor. The
book does not dwell on his surveying career except for a couple of
references, but they were good ones. The old man is telling his
caretaker how he ended up becoming a land surveyor: " But in
Buffington – where the Forest Preserve is now – I saw a sign saying
LAND SURVEYOR WANTED. And below that, something that looked made for
me: MUST BE WISE IN THE WAYS OF MAPS AND THE WOODS. I went into
the county office, and after reading some maps – latitude, longitude,
contours and such – I got the job. Son, I felt like the man who fell
into a pile of shit and came up with a rose in his teeth. I got to
spend every fucking day tramping the woods, blazing trees and making
maps and charting old woods roads, of which there were many. Some
nights I stayed with a family willing to take me in and some nights I
camped under the stars. It was grand. There were times when I didn’t
see another living soul for days. That’s not for everyone, but it was
for me."
For those of us who happened to fall into our careers as land surveyors
and were very happy with the outcome, we can appreciate the " rose
in the teeth" analogy.
September 18, 2022 -
The Alaska Landmine - Alaskan Right of Way Issues
Today I would like to give a shout out to The Alaska Landmine, a
political news site established by Editor-in Chief, Jeff Landfield.
Given his name similarity to "Land Field Services, Inc.", Jay Sullivan's
land acquisition firm that was responsible for acquiring the ROW for the
Trans Alaska Pipeline, it only made sense that the "Landmine" would be
the publication to develop a series of articles relating to
controversial right-of-way issues.
In the Special Features section of the Landmine website, there are two
ROW stories: "One
Man's Mountain" and "The
Bizarre Story of Campbell Lake, The Private Lake That Isn't".
Note that both of these stories are based on reporting by Jeff Landfield
and Paxson Woelber, a Landmine associate. The Campbell Lake story
relates to the history of the man-made lake and attempts to limit public
access to it. This case discusses to the legal status of Campbell Lake
and the available access to it via a section line easement that exists
across residential properties. "One Man's Mountain" relates to access to
the Chugach State Park along an old homestead trail referred to as the
"Stewart Trail". The trail had been blocked where it crossed property
owned by Franklin Pugh. On September 1, 2022, Superior Court
concluded that access across the Pugh property had been secured by a
public prescriptive easement.
These stories are not a few column inches of text that you might find it
your average news publication. They represent a significant level of
research and analysis supported by court documents, correspondence,
maps, photographs and interviews. I found it interesting that in
2018, Jeff Landfield walked the trail with then State Representative
Chris Birch to investigate the access issue. Chris (since passed
in 2019), was the DOT&PF Northern Region Right-of-Way Chief who
hired me in October of 1986 as the Regional ROW "Engineer"
(Surveyor). ROW/Title/Survey professionals will find these
articles very interesting and educational. I'm looking forward to
more controversial access/ROW stories from the Landmine.
The Stewart Trail story is published in three articles:
August 17, 2022 - A little bit of "Highway"
humor - "Adopt a
Highway"...
August 7, 2022 - Generally I don't do book
reviews but then I rarely have found a novel about mapping that involves
both mystery and magic. I'm still reading it but the book titled "The
Cartographers" by Peng Shepherd was published in March of
2022. The main character is Nell Young who has a doctorate in
cartography and worked with her father at the NY Public Library mapping
archives until her father fires her for unclear reasons. The story
revolves around a 1939 highway map of New York state and the mystical
town of Agloe which may or may not exist, depending on whether you have
a copy of the map showing the town. This is referred to as a "phantom
settlement" or one that doesn't exist but is intentionally placed on a
map as a "copyright trap" or a tool to defeat copyright infringement. If
your competitor publishes a map showing the same fictional town that you
have shown on yours, then this will be the evidence that they have
stolen your original work and not performed their own mapping.
This concept is based in fact...see the Wikipedia article: Agloe,
New York. The book also discusses the Sanborn Insurance maps
that can be found for many towns in Alaska. The premise so far is
that if a person holds a copy of a map showing the "phantom settlement",
then it will exist when they are in the vicinity. If their map
does not show the "phantom settlement", then it will not exist. A
lot of the text involves the relationships between a group of
cartography students who discovered the phenomena. I'm easily distracted
so some of this is slow going for me. And as I have about a
quarter of the book to go, I can't say for certain yet whether the
"magic" is real or perceived. I may be back later to edit this
post when I have finished the read.
June 22, 2022 - I was perusing some old Alaska
Road Commission Files and came upon one that was apparently of
significant concern to ARC management more than 7 decades ago. The
issue was coffee breaks and the need to ensure that they were not being
abused by staff, particularly in the Juneau office. See SUBJECT:
Recess for Coffee. Today I forwarded the memo to our
current DOT&PF Commissioner with the suggestion that he review this
weighty issue and impose controls on staff coffee breaks as may be
warranted.
June 21, 2022 ~ I decided to change my
first photo on the "Author" page.
The initial image was my official R&M employment photo with the bad
haircut and the forced smile that reminds me of '60's & '70's high
school yearbook photos. It had to go. In its place I'm now
using one that my daughter had made for me from a site called
"StampYoFace". They take your portrait photo and turn it into a
rubber stamp. I have so far resisted stamping it on all of my
correspondence and reports.
June 21, 2022 ~ "Circular No. 5"...the holy
grail? Maybe not, but still a document I would like to see. At one
point in time the earliest authority I have seen in Alaska specifying
the width of a highway ROW was the Territorial Act of 1917.
Section 13 of the Act stated " The lawful width of right-of-way of
all roads or trails shall be sixty feet." However, page 37 of
Claus-M Naske's 1986 "Paving
Alaska's Trails", cites "Circular No. 5", dated July 10,
1907 and specifies that "... all roads and trails located,
constructed and maintained by the board are to be 60 feet wide, 30
feet on each side of the center-line, except in special cases where a
lesser width might be employed." An internet search found a
publication reference in the Dawson
Daily News in the July 26, 1907 edition. At some point when
time permits, I hope to spend more time up at the Rasmuson Library in
hope that I can find an actual copy of Circular No. 5.
May 7, 2022 ~ Section
Line Easements on Mental Health Trust Land - 12/30/20
MHT-DOT&PF-DNR Agreement- Beware of this Agreement and don't attempt
to determine the width of an SLE on Trust land without reading this page
and discussing the current status of the Agreement with DNR Cadastral.
May 14, 2022 - In the Klutina
Lake Road RS-2477 project page I discuss the many years of
controversy and lawsuits that resulted in the March 12, 2021 Supreme
Court Opinion. The opinion concluded that aboriginal
title could not invalidate an otherwise valid RS-2477 ROW and that the
scope of use for the Klutina Road RS-2477 ROW was limited to ingress and
egress. While I was gathering documents for this page, I found
that the Supreme Court issued an Order
on 12/17/21 granting a petition for rehearing. The rehearing
was requested by the State. More importantly, the 2021 Opinion
issued by the Court in this case was "Withdrawn". So, it
would appear that validity issue of the Klutina Lake Road RS-2477 ROW
and the scope of use is now right back where we started.
Web Log Zion National Park - Angel's Landing 
Visited Zion National Park in January of 2022 for the first time. The Park was amazing...but the gift shop included an item that only a surveyor could love. Apparently, many of the National Parks have these token pins available. The text on the back of the card reads: " Overlooking the Zion Canyon at 5,785 feet, Angels Landing is marked with a U.S. Geological Survey Bench Mark. A bench mark is a point whose position is known to a high degree of accuracy and is normally marked in some way. The marker is often a metal disk made for this purpose, but it can also be a church spire, a radio tower, a mark chiseled into stone, or a metal rod driven in to the ground. Bench marks can be found at various locations all over the United States. They are used by land surveyors, builders and engineers, map makers, and other professionals who need an accurate answer to the question, 'Where?'"