Reconnaissance
After reviewing the research records, the field crew mobilizes to your property to start examining the site and setting up instruments. Modern survey crews carry magnetic locators (commonly, metal detectors) to help in the search for evidence which may be located underground. In some cases, old metal fences are eventually consumed by trees, but the remains of the fence are still detectable. Our term for the initial search of the site for boundary evidence is “reconnaissance”.
Performing reconnaissance, or “recon” for short, is an integral and often interesting part of the survey. The types of natural and artificial boundary markers that we find are unlimited. On some sites we are looking for certain marked trees in a forest and on other days we are examining a stone wall to recover a particular stone with a drilled hole in it. The evidence found during recon dictates the approach for the next phase of the survey, establishment of control points. Of course, surveyors know that not all available evidence may present itself on the first pass; it is common to go back and take a more targeted look for pieces of evidence as the survey proceeds.