The UCLS Standards and Ethics Committee is pleased to announce the release of the updated Corner Record Guide, now available on the UCLS website. This revised guide features new templates, examples and a fillable form, designed to simplify and standardize your monument documentation process.
Special thanks to Brock Slaugh (Uintah County) for providing not only a corner record example but also a DWG file, which has been uploaded alongside the guide. You can find both the guide and the template in the Resources section of www.ucls.org, under Standards of Practice.
Additional thanks to the county surveyors and contributors who played an important role in reviewing and refining this update, including Brad Park (Salt Lake County), Anthony Canto (Utah County), Ryan Allred (Duchesne County), Michael Draper (Washington County), Randy Miller (U.S. Forest Service) and everyone on the Standards and Ethics Committee.
Updating this document has involved numerous discussions — surveyors across the state often have differing opinions about what should be included on a corner record. But with collaboration from our county surveyors, we were able to bring this update across the finish line and deliver a guide document that represents a statewide consensus.
As a reminder, Utah State Code §17-73-505 requires surveyors to file a corner record when a monument has materially changed or reestablished, or when a monument lacks a record altogether. Additionally, Utah State Code §17-73-502(5) requires surveyors to notify the county surveyor within five days if a monument is found in need of rehabilitation. Please continue to coordinate with your county surveyor when reestablishing lost or obliterated corners to keep our collective records accurate and up to date throughout the state.
To mark this occasion, we highlight a particularly meaningful corner record submitted by UCLS Past Chairman Andy Hubbard. Though not a section corner, it documents a monument set at This Is the Place Heritage Park in conjunction with the 2019 Surveyors Historical Society Annual Conference. Finally set in 2023, it was crafted from a hand-shaped sandstone obelisk with a monument inset at the top. The monument will be used to explain solar observations and modern land surveying concepts to thousands of Utah students visiting the park each year.
The record is more than a technical filing — it is a testament to Utah’s surveying heritage, honoring one of the earliest global positions determined by the recently arrived pioneers in 1847.
