Retracement Survey
A retracement survey is a survey made for the purpose of reestablishing the evidence of an original survey. Technically there can be no retracement surveys of tracts of land unless there was an original survey. Often the term resurvey is used to mean the same thing as retracement but resurvey has connotations of a new survey superimposed over the original survey, perhaps setting corners as the surveyor feels they should have been set rather than as they were.
A survey made to ascertain the direction and length of lines and to identify monuments and other marks of an established prior survey. Recovered corners are rehabilitated, but lost corners are not restored and lines through timber are not reblazed (BLM, 1973, paragraph 6-7).