Add county survey markers to the list of things damaged and destroyed by the Canyon Creek Complex fire.

The section markers are vital pieces of information that keep county surveys up to date, and the two-person Grant County surveyor’s office is tasked with maintaining those public land survey corners. If they don’t reach the damaged markers quickly, before evidence of their exact location has been lost, property owners may have to pay be forced to pay a private outfit to re-survey their land.

So Grant County surveyor Mike Springer is asking owners of property damaged by the fire to contact his office immediately so as much information as possible can be salvaged.

Before 1910, Springer said stones were placed to mark every mile through much of Grant County. Since then capped iron, brass and aluminum pipes have mostly been used to note both section corners and quarter-section corners. Often, large trees were used as accessories to help surveyors locate section corner locations. Springer said markers in the burned area may have been placed anytime from 1870 to 2015.

“A pretty big range there,” he laughed.

Many were destroyed and melted by the scorching Canyon Creek fire, and plenty more were bulldozed out of place by fire crews or knocked off kilter by falling rocks and trees.

Springer’s office is now working exclusively on lands affected by recent burns. If you have a section, quarter-section or a bearing tree on your property that you think may have been damaged due to the recent fires, call the Grant County surveyor’s office at 541-575-1251 or Springer’s cell phone at 541-620-0676.

— Interim editor Tim Trainor can be reached t 541-575-0710.