ÜBER DIESE EPISODE
I used to work as a land surveyor in Dodge County, Wisconsin. Boundary work in Dodge County was complicated by a legendary courthouse fire that had taken place decades previously; what it meant for me was that original deeds and maps were sometimes missing, which meant that boundary relocation sometimes amounted to guesswork based on minimal field evidence. According to legend, the fire was set intentionally by a crooked lawyer who had gotten himself into trouble over property issues. And, according to legend, it worked; with the disappearance of certain deeds and other documents, the lawyer's troubles also disappeared. I confess, I don't know the historical truth of the story, beyond the bare fact of the fire. But it strikes me as all too plausible; land surveying is an art that balances physical evidence, case law, and recorded documents and the recorded documents are arguably the most important pieces of the puzzle. Without them, nothing definite can be said about the ownership of a piece of land, let alone its precise shape and area.
