Bought a house in April. All corners have a real 1/2" iron rod with a cap except one. It is a cotton spindle. It's 159' feet from the nearest marker.

It was placed in 2007. The area is completely wild Hill Country (knee high grass, cactus, mesquite, etc.).

How the hell do I find this thing?

Metal detector.

If you can't just stumble upon it while walking around and looking for it then I'd suggest investing in a 200' tape. Remember the called distance on the survey is a horizontal distance rather than a slope distance.

Cotton spindles are usually put into asphalt or a crack in concrete. If it would be in the ground, they would have used an iron rod there. They are only about 6" long so they do not use them in soil.

Spindle from a cotton picker?



Metal detector.

Well, did you find it?

My crew found three axles in Brenham yesterday!

I think a tree is more ridiculous than an axle. The axle might at least stay. The tree will die.

My neighbor and I calculated a spot. I'm going out tomorrow to try an find the damn thing.

A GIS leads me to believe the use of these spindles are fairly common. They just typically use some marking tape with them.

In some cases, we will drill a hole in the limestone and drive the cotton spindle into it. Some may require an epoxy with the spindle. Under normal conditions, spindles are used in asphalt or set in expansion joints of curbs and concrete drives.

When you get close to the record distance, keep an eye out for faded paint on rocks. More than likely there will be some discoloration where the paint was.

Use a Schoenstadt

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I think a tree is more ridiculous than an axle.

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I found a persimmon tree last week that was called a 10" persimmon with x cut in a deed from 1955!

Sgt. Hartman said:

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Use a Schoenstadt

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My father in law has property that is marked by a spindle, but we can't find it using a metal detector. I went online and the Schoenstadt is really expensive. Do you know if there is a way to rent one? Just curious.

Are you sure this is a property market or a control point.

We use cotton spindles in Asphalt for Control for a survey or an Aerial mapping flight panel.

You can rent one at a place that sells land surveying equipment.

Where are you located?

I'm in the DFW area but the property is near Little Rock.