Blog · September 30, 2026
What Is a Passing Call?
A passing call notes a feature the surveyor crossed along a line, such as a creek, a road, or a fence, with the distance where it was crossed. It documents the route. It is not automatically a corner, and it does not by itself turn the feature into the boundary.
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A note along the way
Field notes and some deeds say, at 12 chains cross a branch, or at 400 feet a rail fence, and then continue to the corner at a greater distance. Those are passing calls. They help a later surveyor recognize the right line because the branch should fall at about that record distance. They are evidence of where the line ran. They are not a command to stop. The corner is still the corner called at the end of the course, unless the deed separately makes the branch or the fence the boundary. Confusing a passing call with a corner call shortens the line to the first creek and leaves a strip the deed actually included.
How the wording differs from a boundary call
A boundary call runs to the creek, or along the creek, or to a fence corner. A passing call crosses the creek and keeps going. Verbs do the work: cross, pass, at, intersect on the way, versus to, along, and bounding. On a plat, a leader line to a fence note in the middle of a course may be informational. Read whether the course dimension continues past it. In GLO notes, topographic calls along a mile are classic passing calls. They are valuable when you are retracing the mile, and they are worthless as new corners. A modern deed that copies an old passing call into the granting clause without the rest of the course can create an ambiguity. Compare the prior deed before you treat the copied fragment as the whole boundary.
Using them without overusing them
If you are following notes in the field, a passing call tells you what you should meet, in order, if you are on the right line. Missing the branch by a long way is a clue you are on the wrong line or the branch moved. It is not a clue you should slide the deed. Identifying a branch a survey crossed in 1840 is skilled work, and a phone GPS waypoint named creek is not that identification. Do not cross a neighbor’s land to chase the call. County GIS may show a stream layer that is a modern hydrography product, not the 1840 branch. Platbookmapper does not interpret passing calls. It links to the assessment map. The notes remain the source.
What to do next
- Mark each feature the course crosses before the corner.
- Do not stop the course at the first feature unless the deed says to.
- Keep passing calls as evidence of the line, in order.
- Compare a copied fragment with the full course in the parent deed.
The mix-up to avoid
Ending the property at the creek mentioned halfway along a course. If the note says cross the creek and continue, the creek is a landmark on the way, not the corner.
Questions people ask
Can a passing call ever control a corner?
It can help prove which line and which corner you have recovered, because the original survey recorded what it crossed. It does not become the corner. Control still belongs to the corner monument and the calls that actually stop there.
What if the fence in the passing call is gone?
That is normal. The call remains a historical statement about that survey. A new fence is not the old one. Absence of the fence does not void the course that mentioned it.
Find the county map
Search the county on the Platbookmapper home page. The directory links to the official parcel viewer. It does not draw the lots, and the line on the screen is an assessment map, not a survey.
Not a survey. County GIS and tax parcel maps are assessment and planning layers. They are not a substitute for a recorded plat, deed, or licensed survey.