# Converting or interpretting survey coordinates **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 12, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-or-interpretting-survey-coordinates/796194 "2017-09-12T21:31:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-or-interpretting-survey-coordinates/796194/1 "2017-09-12T21:31:39Z")
In looking at this [survey](https://skiturvalley.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/1967-06-21-ski-tur-valley-plat-pgs-60-62.pdf) here for a platted out mountain community, can anyone help me understand how to interpret the final page’s list of coordinates? Using circle or Lot 1: N 12 475.97 E 12 454.53 1. How do I parse these numbers? I am interpretting this as 475.97 feet from the N 12 mark and 454.53 feet from E12 marker. 2. And secondly, how do I locate the points that are used for the actual survey marking reference? I am an intelligent person, but I do not understand how do this. Searching on the internet leads to all sorts of other surveying coordinate systems but none that seem to look at these. We are looking at purchasing one of the lots, but the modern roads and utilities and stream movement mean that using the roads to predict where a lot is not exact enough and I don’t want to buy land that overlaps a road! Thanks for any guidance you can provide on interpretting this. ---
**Author:** ![newme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e0b2c6/32.png) [@newme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newme)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-or-interpretting-survey-coordinates/796194/2 "2017-09-12T22:29:29Z")
My guess is these are numbers in feet: “N 12 475.97” means “North 12,475.97 feet”. The SW corner of Section 11 is set at the coordinates N 10,000 feet, East 10,000 feet. The center of the south border of section 11 “S 1/4 corner” has coordinates N 9995.85 E 12641.38. This places it 2641.38 feet east of the SW corner, which is damn close to half a mile, as it should be. The radius of each lot is 40 feet. The center of lot 3 appears to be about 85 feet due north of lot 6. Lot 3: N 12319.17 Lot 6: N 12235.01 Difference = 84.01 Pretty Close ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-or-interpretting-survey-coordinates/796194/3 "2017-09-12T23:30:53Z")
> [@newme](#): > > My guess is these are numbers in feet: > “N 12 475.97” means “North 12,475.97 feet”. > > The SW corner of Section 11 is set at the coordinates N 10,000 feet, East 10,000 feet. > > The center of the south border of section 11 “S 1/4 corner” has coordinates N 9995.85 E 12641.38. This places it 2641.38 feet east of the SW corner, which is damn close to half a mile, as it should be. > > The radius of each lot is 40 feet. The center of lot 3 appears to be about 85 feet due north of lot 6. > > Lot 3: N 12319.17 > Lot 6: N 12235.01 > Difference = 84.01 Pretty Close This makes a ton of sense but makes the calculations and errors too large to be able to extrapolate without a professional involved. Thank you for looking into it. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2017, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-or-interpretting-survey-coordinates/796194/4 "2017-09-13T04:08:40Z")
Correct- in platting in coordinates, surveyors generally use a coordinate system and your coordinates for any point are generally given in **Northings** and **Eastings**. This layout appears to be what would be called a small “local” coordinate system. If you can re-establish the platted lines, you could then retrace the centers of each of those lots. ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-or-interpretting-survey-coordinates/796194/5 "2017-09-15T21:14:35Z")
**newme** and **krondys** , Thanks for the help! Once you gave the “nomenclature”, we didn’t have to go all the way back to the original markers as we could use the other cabins and circles for reference and were able to get fairly consistent results using Google Maps to mark the exact location. Using 10 existing cabins we got 8 of them to give us points within a 5’ diameter and the other two were less than 20’ away. So now we knew fairly precisely where the lot was… and we passed on the property as the next door cabin was built outside of its circle and was actual infringing into the circle we were looking into. The position of that cabin was what made us very confused as to how everything could make sense with the various maps. So now we just have to keep looking, but thank you for helping to avert a future headache! ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-or-interpretting-survey-coordinates/796194/6 "2017-09-15T22:07:42Z")
The lesson here is **always, always, always** inspect the property lines _before_ you buy real estate … ---
**Author:** ![ZurBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/71e660/32.png) [@ZurBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZurBob)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2017, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-or-interpretting-survey-coordinates/796194/7 "2017-09-16T02:11:03Z")
> [@Disheavel](#): > > In looking at this [survey](https://skiturvalley.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/1967-06-21-ski-tur-valley-plat-pgs-60-62.pdf) here for a platted out mountain community, can anyone help me understand how to interpret the final page’s list of coordinates? > > Using circle or Lot 1: > N 12 475.97 > E 12 454.53 Just curious, what’s the purpose or intent of the circular lots? Who owns, and takes care of all the property in between lots? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2017, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-or-interpretting-survey-coordinates/796194/8 "2017-09-16T04:08:10Z")
Which county is this in? I suggest googling the name of the county, gis. ‘King County GIS’ led me to [King County Parcel Viewer](http://gismaps.kingcounty.gov/parcelviewer2/) The lines there don’t appear to be survey accurate (as they are for the county I live in), but they’ll generally show you where the lines are. Click on Base Maps at the top and go to the Aerial View 2015. Almost all county GIS maps have an aerial view. Like I just zoomed down at random and clicked on this tiny triangular property and got; Parcel 0697000010 Present use: Retail Store Property name: FAULKENBURY & WRIGHT Jurisdiction: SEATTLE Taxpayer name: REA JEANNE Address: 501 DENNY WAY 98121 Appraised value: $1,511,000 Lot area: 4,951 Levy code: 0012 Property Report Districts Report Source: King County Assessor Lot lines are approximate. Not for legal use. See our terms of use. In my county, it also gives the property taxes for the last several years and a last transaction date with the price it sold for, which I’ve found a lot of fun to look at. Whenever one of my parents or sister’s neighbors sell their houses, they call me and ask what it went for. But I don’t see that information on the King County site. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2017, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-or-interpretting-survey-coordinates/796194/9 "2017-09-16T04:22:46Z")
[https://gis.co.kittitas.wa.us/compas/default.aspx](https://gis.co.kittitas.wa.us/compas/default.aspx) Was able to find the area using this. The common area is; Parcel ID: 328235 Map Number: 22-11-11050-0102 Recorded Area: 50.69 a Owner Name: SKI TUR VALLEY Name Cont: MAINTENANCE ASSOC Mailing Address: PO BOX 179 City/State: SNOQUALMIE PASS, WA Zipcode: 98068 The parcel ID should help you zoom in on it on the map.