Daily AncestorWitness corner
A witness corner is a survey marker set on a nearby line when the true corner falls where a marker cannot be placed, such as in a stream or on a cliff.
Federal surveyors set a corner monument at each section corner. If that spot was in water, on rock or otherwise impossible to mark, they set a witness corner nearby, usually on the line of the survey, and recorded its distance and direction from the true corner.
It is different from a bearing tree, which is a marked tree used to find a corner that was itself marked. Field notes and plats abbreviate it W.C.
As seen in a recordFederal survey field notes, 1800s
Set W.C. on line 1.50 chains east of true corner, which falls in the creek
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Daily Ancestor. "Witness corner." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/legal-land/witness-corner. Last checked 2026-10-12.