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 Systen in Minnesota and the United States is available on the web:
Plats for each township show section and subdivision markers; acreage of some subdivisions; rivers, lakes, swamps, major land elevations, and other natural features; location and identification of any settlements or settlers' claims established prior to the completion of the survey; and any roads or railroads in existence at the time of the survey. Some plats include names of streams and lakes, notes on topography and vegetation, meander notes, and related data.
The plats also list the total acreage of the township; name of the surveyor(s); date of contract or special instruction under which the township was surveyed; date the survey was completed; and date the plats were approved by the surveyor general. Some townships that are divided by a major watercourse have two plats, one for each bank. There are additional plats for some townships in which subsequent surveys were made to correct or reestablish section or subdivision markers, or for surveys of islands that were not included in the original government survey.
The collection is organized into the following sections:
Within each section the plats are arranged by principal meridian, then range, then township.
The original land survey plats are closed to the public. Requests to use the original plats should be directed to the Minnesota State Archivist.
Digital version of the official set of original land survey plats is available on the web:
Accession numbers: 985-3; 985-87; 2008-30; 2009-60; 2011-39; 2011-72; 2012-26; 2012-36; 2012-67; 2013-69; 2015-26; 2016-30
Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project
grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission
Catalog ID number: 001714092
A computer-generated index to the official set of Minnesota township plats filed in the Minnesota secretary of state's office. Although not needed to locate the plat for a given township, it contains summary data on each plat.
Each entry gives township and range, sections surveyed, month and year of survey, surveyor's code number, lines surveyed, comments, plat type (original, resurvey, or copy), and file reference (microfiche number). There may be several index entries for a single township or range if portions were surveyed, resurveyed, or annotated at different times.
There is one fiche for the 4th prime meridian and one for the 5th. Each is arranged by township number, then range number, within groups of ranges: 4th p.m. ranges 12-21, 21-32; 5th p.m. ranges 3-28, 28-34, 35-41, 41-51.
The index was generated from a file residing at the University of Minnesota Computer Center.
Microfiche reproductions of the plat drawings of Minnesota townships made by the U.S. surveyor general's office in St. Paul from the field notes of deputy surveyors.
Filmed with each plat is a certificate of authenticity signed by the Minnesota secretary of state.
The plats are arranged by principal meridian, then range, then township; one township per fiche. Each microfiche has an alphanumeric identification symbol that reflects the initial filming order of the plats.
Comparison of these plats with a plat index held by the Natural Resources Department, Land Bureau, indicate that the following plats are missing: R19 T33; R20 T27; R24 T32; R32 T40; R35 T122; R49 T141.
The following missing plats are housed in the Township Survey Plats: Supplemental Set (cataloged separately in the U. S. Surveyor General of Minnesota records as Township Survey Plats: Supplemental Set): R6 T66 W4th PM; R38 T147; R49 T141.
Duplicate, dependent resurvey plats received by the Secretary of State from the Bureau of Land Management.
While these plats interfile geographically with those reproduced on the
microfiche and in the digital set, the work done postdates both sets and,
therefore, they are
Includes corrective dependent resurvey.