Western

PLSS Corner Records — California

California surveyors file a Corner Record (or Record of Survey) with the County Surveyor under the Professional Land Surveyors' Act when material evidence of a property or PLSS corner is found, set, or reset. The Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists (BPELSG) publishes the official blank Corner Record form.

Filing Requirements

Where Corner Records Are Filed in California

A Corner Record is required when a surveyor finds, sets, resets, or references a PLSS corner and no current Record of Survey or Corner Record is on file. The completed form is filed with the county surveyor.

County Surveyor / County Recorder

www.bpelsg.ca.gov

Street View Coverage

Street View Reaches 79.9% of California Townships

Of the 4,412 PLSS townships in California, 3,527 (79.9%) contain usable Google Street View imagery — meaning a surveyor can pull up the road camera view of a monument before ever leaving the office. Coverage skews toward roads and populated areas; monuments in remote rural sections are less likely to have a nearby capture.

MetricValue
Total PLSS townships4,412
Townships with Street View3,527
Coverage rate79.9%
Capture depthUp to 20 years of history

Corner-Plot Workflow

Pre-Field Review for California Corners

Upload a California Corner Record PDF. Corner-Plot reads the form with OCR — extracting the surveyor name, township-range-section, monument description, and every bearing and distance tie. The corner is geo-located automatically across the PLSS grid, assigning a GCDB-standard 21-character Point ID and a confidence rating of High, Medium, or Low.

When the monument sits at or near a roadway, Corner-Plot brings up Google Street View with its full capture history — up to 20 years. AI analyzes each date and returns a structured monument-condition verdict. A printable field prep report covers the resolved coordinate, aerial tie overlay, monument classification history, and original GLO field notes.

Other PLSS States

Corner Record Requirements in Other States

View all 19 PLSS states →