Original Field Notes and Plat

When lands are granted according to an official plat of a survey, the plat with all its notes, lines, descriptions and landmarks becomes a part of the grant or deed by which they are conveyed and controls, so far as limits are concerned, as if such descriptive features were written out on face of deed or grant.

The copy of the official plat from which the patent was issued is the copy which becomes part of the patent itself.

Where there is a variance between the plat and the field notes of an original government survey, the plat must control. The township plat furnishes the basic data relating to the survey and the description of all areas in a particular township.

The plat is developed from the field notes and is intended to be an exact pictorial representation thereof.

When the field notes are relied upon to restore a lost corner and are found to be inconsistent, and cannot be reconciled, there is no universal rule that certain ones shall be preferred to others; but, as in a case where living witnesses contradict each other, those should be accepted as correct which, under all circumstances, are most entitled to credit, and most likely to be in accordance with the actual facts.