Interesting point.
Here in East Texas, there is a group of investors that have had some land surveyed and found that there are some huge discrepancies. It seems that the mineral rights might not be accurate and the land people thing they own and have payed taxes on for decades, might not actualy be theirs. There is about 4,000 acres in question that the courts are trying to decide what to do with. It's a mess.
Back in California, I have a friend who owned land that bordered some Park land. It was a never ending battle with them and their desire for his land and his pleasure at fighting with them.
There is a developer that for some reason, they really like. He has the Park land surveyed and discovers pieces of land that nobody owns. He then goes through the process of aquiring this land and developing it with multi million dollar spec homes. To give you an idea of how connected he is, he's building these homes on land that the voters passed a proposition to create open space on. No development on it of any kind. Somehow, he has permits to build these homes that pre-date the passing of that bill. What's really amazing is his permits also pre-date his surveys and aquisition of the land!!!
One of many reasons the original Spanish Land Grants in California were disolved, or taken away from them was the lack of an original survey and/or the boundries no longer exist. Rocks, trees and even creeks move and when ownership of these lands were challenged, the courts used the lack of these boundries to justify there desisions.
Eddie