I'd almost be willing to bet that the rules are different depending on
where the property is located.  For example, I've seen different rules that
apply in Louisiana
where somebody tried to apply the rules that apply in places which do not
have a French legal background (the specific case was rules that applied to
Georgia which has the English legal history in its background).

I grew up in Washington State and there was a huge who-ha there in the
mid1850s where many of the the dudes who got promoted high enough in the
Army that became commanders of large (Yankee) forces in the Civil War.
There are still people who believe that the Yankees were wrong about the
settlement of that fight.

Now, to discuss the specific case as it's been explained here.  You're
probably best off to look at the USGS map drafts for the area and then also
look at what the USC&GS has for the wet bits.  I do not know where the
drafts for the C&GS maps and charts went when almost all the mapping
functions went to the military and navy except for what the USGS was
allowed to keep.

The people who can actually do cartographic work for the military and navy
these days are remarkably underutilized in my view and could be used by
people like the Weather Service in a lot of instances to prepare accurate
maps for their forecasters' use.

Finally, in Washington State, when an issue comes up about ownership of
land that's underwater, the rules are pretty clear and the folks in Olympia
seem to be the authorities.  I don't know whether that means somebody in
Tallahassee is a rulemaker/rulebreaker for things in Florida counties.  My
home county at its nearest
point to Olympia is closer than Walton county is to Tallahassee and most
people don't want folks in Tallahassee having anything to say about what
they regard as a local issue which is how most local folks regard property
issues.

I don't know whether this helps out or not, but it seems in Washington
State NOT to be a matter of precedent set in the court systems (local,
state, or federal).

virginia

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Virginia R. Hetrick, here in sunny California
Email:  [log in to unmask]
"There is always hope."
My fave:  http://www.washington.edu/cambots/camera1_l.jpg
There's no place like:  34N 8' 25.38", 117W 58' 5.16"
if you can't be at:  48N 7' 4.54" 122W 45' 50.95"
The US Naval Academy is back to teaching celestial
navigation, again!  "Why?" you ask.  Because hackers
can't foul it up like they can GPS.
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