Government Records
The Office of Surveyor General of Minnesota, established by Act of Congress of March 3, 1857, was responsible for conducting the original government survey of the public domain in the territory and state of Minnesota.
The earliest surveys of land in Minnesota were conducted under the jurisdiction of the Surveyor General of Iowa and Wisconsin, headquartered at Dubuque, Iowa. These surveys, completed between 1848 and May 1857, were primarily on land located between the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers or in the southeastern corner of Minnesota. After the establishment of the Office of Surveyor General of Minnesota, copies of the field notes, plats, and other records relevant to these surveys were transferred from Dubuque to St. Paul.
The Office of Surveyor General of Minnesota continued in operation until December 1907, when the survey of Minnesota was essentially complete. After 1907, the commissioner of the U. S. General Land Office served, ex officio, as Surveyor General of Minnesota, and handled any requisite surveying activities and questions. A congressional act of 1940 provided that the records of the Office of Surveyor General of Minnesota be turned over to the Minnesota Secretary of State.
A more detailed history and origin of the Public Land Survey System in Minnesota and
the United States is available on the web:
Included are materials on surveying of islands and the state's western and northern boundaries; resurveying; projects to microfiche, 1972-1981, and electronically image, 1990-1994, the land survey field notes; U.S. Department of Interior letters and opinions, 1908-1911; lists of deputy surveyors, 1981; procedures for government land office surveyors, 1983; and land area by townships, 1950. Also two Bibles, 1831, 1845, used to administer the official oaths to the public land surveyors; a record of public land surveys in the state, circa 1847-1891; and maps of the military post (Fort Gaines) site, 1848, Indian (Grand Portage) reservation, 1858, Township 159N, Ranges 42-43, 5th Meridian, 1909, Lake Fremont, Sherburne County, circa 1920, and the Sioux Reserve, 1859.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the
Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics
should
The Map of the Sioux Reserve, 1859, is closed to the public. A digital version is available in the Detailed Description of this finding aid. Requests to use the original map should be directed to the Minnesota State Archivist.
Accession numbers: 2008-30; 2009-60
Catalog ID number: 007469387
Submitted by E. E. McDonald regarding a survey of three islands in Mille Lacs Lake.
Regarding the survey of an island in Crow Wing County (Township 44, Range 28) done by Frank E. Kenney.
These two Bibles were apparently used to administer official oaths to the surveyors who conducted the official public land surveys. Each volume contains several pages with handwritten notes; the 1831 volume includes a list of clerks appointed to the U. S. Surveyor General’s Office for the period 1815-1853, the 1845 volume includes a list of the U. S. Surveyors General appointed to that office for the period 1797-1895.
Black and white and color photocopies of the handwritten pages accompany the volumes.
Includes diagrams.
Includes imaging and indexing instructions, reports, and background information about the planning and implementation of the imaging of the original land survey field notes.
Written by the U. S. Department of the Interior; sent to the Secretary of State.
Arranged in alphabetical order,
Records of the project to microfiche the land survey records.
Record of surveyors and land surveyed, divided into three sections: Pages 1-16, listing surveyors chronologically between 1847 and 1880, with date of contract, description of survey, mileage and privr per mile; pages 34-174, divided by range and township, listing surveyor, date, district, distance of meanders, area of swamp or water surface, and several dates regarding plat maps and field notes; and pages 288-292, labeled Miscellaneous Surveys, containing a record of commissions issued to deputy surveyors and the area of water in the 4th and 5th meridians.
Surveyors: Hutton and Snow. Map of the area from around present day New Ulm to Granite Falls; it portrays flat prairie, rolling prairie, rivers, creeks, wagon trails and two Indian agencies. A note on the map reads: We do hereby notify that the above is a true and correct platte for the true and original notes. Signed C. H. Snow and Henry Sutton. Approved February 24, 1859, W. C. Cullen, Supt. Indian Affairs. Relief is shown in hachures.
Township Nos. 109-120 and Range Nos. 31-45 were surveyed and mapped in likely response to the June 19, 1858 treaty which limited the Sioux Reservation to land south of the Minnesota River. The treaty declares that land belonging to the Mdewakanton, Wahpakoota, Sisseton, and Wahpeton Dakota bands … which lies south or south west wardly [sic] of the Minnesota River, shall constitute a reservation for said bands, and shall be surveyed, and eighty acres thereof, as near as may be in conformity with the public surveys, be allotted… . There is, however, no mention of Indian villages or Indian occupation noted on the map.
Digital version
Arranged chronologically.
Surveyed by Lieutenants Derby and Williamson, U.S. Topographical Engineers; drawn by Lt. Derby. The fort is named Fort Gaines on the map, and was later known as Fort Ripley, and is presently the site of Camp Ripley in Morrison County. The site is in the vicinity of the Crow Wing River, and also shows the Mississippi River and Nokasippi River, the boundary of the military fort site, the boundary of the military reservation, farm land, prairie land, tamarack swamps, and pine forests.
Surveyed by George H. Cannon, U.S. Deputy Surveyor. Shows land on the northern tip of the North Shore of Lake Superior which apparently became the Grand Portage Indian Reservation, includes the Grand Portage Bay village, the Pigeon River, an Indian sugar camp, cranberry marshes, trails, and the Canadian border.
Surveyed by Roseau County Surveyor V.B. Chapin. Survey of this township in Roseau County showing relative position and distances of posts along dual range lines, and dual corners and gores. Includes field survey notes.
Located in Sherburne County in Township 34 North, Range 26 West, 4th Meridian. The map does not state who conducted the survey or who drew the map.