Attached map is a random stretch of Brazos river. The red line represents the river when the property was originally platted. Through many years of erosion and accretion, the river has slowly moved to look like it does in the aerial today.

Which land owner owns which piece of grey shaded property? Do they each own their original property which is now on the other side of the river? Or has ownership moved with the river?

Is there a legal difference between erosion/ accretion and if the river just cuts a new path through the land as a the result of a flood event?

I posted the same question on another forum and got this link.

https://www.jgradyrandlepc.com/real-estate/river-changes-course-real-property/

Seems an argument could be made either way.

"The doctrine of erosion and accretion applies in cases when a witness may see from time to time that progress has been made, but they could not perceive it while the progress was going on."

Anyone that has spent time on the Brazos during high water knows you can sit there and observe huge hunks of land falling into the river.

That property is not platted and platting has no stabilizing effect against the river's ability to move property lines.

Calving large chunks of land is different from avulsion events where the river has a wholesale shift at high flow into a newly created bed. What you're seeing here is erosion/accretion and the property lines have followed the river.

The GLO's earliest maps of the Brazos don't jive with your "original" river location. But that is a very ambulatory stretch of river. And it is a stretch that has originated a lot of Texas' water boundary law cases due to that and economic factors/settlement patterns.

normaleagle05 said:

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That property is not platted and platting has no stabilizing effect against the river's ability to move property lines.

Calving large chunks of land is different from avulsion events where the river has a wholesale shift at high flow into a newly created bed. What you're seeing here is erosion/accretion and the property lines have followed the river.

The GLO's earliest maps of the Brazos don't jive with your "original" river location. But that is a very ambulatory stretch of river. And it is a stretch that has originated a lot of Texas' water boundary law cases due to that and economic factors/settlement patterns.

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Thanks for the thoughts.

The map was a random hypothetical location to help illustrate my questions.