Rectangular Survey Resources
The documents created during the rectangular land surveying process in Minnesota, which lasted from 1847 until 1908, can be found in the collections of three repositories; the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul, Minnesota - containing the documents created from 1857 until 1908; the Iowa State Historical Society Library in Des Moines, Iowa - containing the documents created from 1847 until 1857; and the National Archives in Washington DC containing documents created throughout the sixty years, 1847-1908. There is little duplication between the Minnesota and Iowa collections but probably considerable duplication between both of these and the National Archives collections.
Archival Collections
Minnesota Historical Society
United States. Office of Surveyor General of Minnesota
Minnesota. Office of Secretary of State
An Inventory of its Land Survey Plats - these have been scanned and can be viewed at Original Public Land Survey Plats of Minnesota
The Commissioner's plat, the copy of the plat that was sent to the Commissioner of the General Land Office in Washington DC, can be seen at BLM GLO Records
An Inventory of its Land Survey Field Notes - these have been scanned and can be viewed at Original Public Land Survey Plats of Minnesota and BLM GLO Records
Other Records
Iowa Historical Society
State Archives RG 081 Secretary of State Land Records
Surveyor General's Office
Account Books
Correspondence, Commissioner of the General Land Office
Correspondence, Deputy Surveyor General to Surveyor General
Correspondence, Surveyor General Letter Books
Survey Records, Administrative - Contracts and Bonds of Deputy Surveyors
Survey Records, Administrative - Recommendations for Positions
Description of Lands on the Interior Sectional Lines
Original Survey Plats
Original Survey Plats (Copies)
Original Surveyors’ Field Notes, Subdivisions (Section Lines)
Original Surveyors’ Field Notes, Town Lines
1847-1866
1843-1884
1832-1858
1828-1866
1831-1864
1832-1853
National Archives
Records of the Bureau of Land Management (Record Group 49 1685-1993)
Microfilm Publications: M478, M1325, M1329, T1234, T1240
Microfilm Publications
M25 Letters Sent by the General Land Office,1796-1889 (200 reels)
M27 Letters Sent by the General Land Office to the Surveyor General, 1796-1901 (31 reels)
M200 Territorial Papers of the U.S. Senate, 1789-1873 (20 reels)
M236 The Territorial Papers of the United States: The Territory of Wisconsin 1836-1848 (a microfilm supplement) (122 reels)
M325 The Territorial Papers of the United States: The Territory of Wisconsin 1838-1846 (a microfilm supplement) (102 reels)
M477 Letters Sent by the Surveyor General of the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, 1797-1854 (10 reels)
M478 Letters Received by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Commissioner of the General land Office from the Surveyor General of the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, 1797-1849 (10 rolls)
M479 Letters Received by the Surveyor General of the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, 1797-1856 (43 reels)
M842 Records of the Minnesota Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1849-1858 (9 rolls)
M1050 The Territorial Papers of the United States: The Territory of Minnesota 1849-1858 (a microfilm supplement) (19 reels)
Special List 29: List of Selected Maps of States and Territories
Township Plats and Field Notes
This database contains images of the transcriptions of the field notes of deputies working in Minnesota. It also contains images of the original plats made by the Surveyor General, plats that are housed in the Minnesota Historical Society collections but closed to the public, and images of the Commissioner's plats, copies of the original plats sent to Washington DC. and, presumably housed in the National Archives.
This database contains images of the original field notes of deputies working in Minnesota. It also contains images of the original plats made by the Surveyor General, plats that are housed in the Minnesota Historical Society collections but closed to the public.
A Rectangular Survey Bibliography
Books, articles, and other information
Agnew, Dwight L. "The government land surveyor as a pioneer" The Mississippi Valley Historical Review v.28 no.3 (1941) 369-382
Bragg, Don C. "General Land Office surveys as a source for Arkansas history: the example of Ashley County" The Arkansas Historical Quarterly v.63 no.2 (2004)
Brinker, Russell C. and Roy Minnick eds. The Surveying Handbook (Second Edition, Norwel, MA. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003)
Burt, Horace E. William Austin Burt, Inventor of the Typewriter first constructed in any country, Solar Compass, Equatorial Sextant (Chicago, 1920)
Burt, William A. Description of the Solar Compass together with Directions for its Adjustment and Use (Detroit, Geiger & Christian Printers, 1844)
Butler, Nathan. "Boundaries and public land surveys in Minnesota" Minnesota Historical Collections v.12 (1908) 649-670
Caldwell Norman C. ed Special Instruction to Deputy Surveyors in Michigan 1808-1854 (Lansing, MI. Michigan Museum of Surveying)
Cazier, Lola. Surveys and Surveyors of the Public Domain, 1785-1975 (Washington. Government Printing Office, 1976)
Coles, Harry L. "Applicability of the public land system to Louisiana" The Mississippi Valley Historical Review v.43 no.1 (1956) 39-58
Coles, Harry L. History of the Administration of federal Land Policies and Land Tenure in Louisiana ( Arno Press, 1979)
Colyer, Cliff et al "Major Andrew Ellicott's survey of the first southern boundary of the United States" Surveying and Land Information Science v.68 no.4 (2008) 251-258
Dodds, J.S. et al Original Instructions Governing Public Land Surveys of Iowa (Ames, IA. Iowa Engineering Society, 1943)
Donaldson, Thomas C. The Public Domain: Its History, with Statistics .... (Washington DC. Government Printing Office, 1881)
Edmonds, Michael. "The U.S. General Land Office and commercial map making: A case study" Government Publications Review v.13 issue 5 (1986) 571-580
Ehrenber, Ralph. "Mapping land, sea, and sky: Federal cartography from 1775 to 1950" Government Publications Review v.10 issue 4 (1983) 351-374
Fegtly, Samuel M. "Historical development of land surveys" 38 Illinois Law Review (1943-1944) 270-292
Foster, Robert W. "Boundary disputes - the U.S. surveyor's role" (
Glenn William W. and Jeanne E. Glenn "Early public land surveyors in the Northwest. John W. Meldrum" (Originally published in the Oregon Surveyor Jan-Feb. 1991)
Griffin C D H. "Retracement of public land surveys in Alabama: The half mile post dilemma" (1999)
Higgins, J. S. Subdivisions of the Public Lands .... (St. Louis. Higgins & Co. 1887)
Johnson, Hildegard Binder. Order Upon the Land:The United States Rectangular Land Survey and the Upper Mississippi Country (New York. Oxford University Press, 1976)
Johnson, Hildegard Binder. “The US Land Survey as a Principle of Order,” in Pattern and Process: Research in Historical Geography (Howard Univ Press, 1975)
Keith, Kenneth L. "Government land surveys and related problems" 38 Iowa Law Review (1952-1953) 85-115
Latta, Leroy K. Jr. "History and method of Indian allotment surveys" Journal Surveying Engineering v.115 issue 4 (1989) 362-372
Linklater, Andro. Measuring America (New York. Walker and Company, 2002)
Linklater, Andro. The Fabric of America: How Our Borders and Boundaries Shaped the Country and Forged Our National Identity (New York. Walker & Co., 2008)
Logan, Robert R. "Notes on the first land surveys in Arkansas" The Arkansas Historical Association v.19 no.3 (1960) 260-270
Lokken, Roscoe L. Iowa Public Land Disposal (Iowa City. The State Historical Society of Iowa, 1942)
Mahun Summaries of the General Instructions Governing the Original U.S.Government Survey of Wisconsin
McEntyre, J. G. Land Survey Systems, Wiley, New York (1978)
Minnick, Roy. comp. A Collection of Original Instructions to Surveyors of the Public Lands, 1815-1881(Rancho Cordova, CA. Landmark Enterprises. n.d.)
Onsrud, Harlan J. A Manual for Resurvey of Public Land Survey Corners and Sectionalized Subdivision Boundaries within the State of Wisconsin
Pattison, William D. Beginnings of the American Rectangular Land Survey System, 1784-1800 (University of Chicago Department of geography Research Paper No. 50. 1957)
Pattison, William D. “The Original Plan for an American Rectangular Land Survey, Surveying and Mapping”, 21 (1957): 339-345, 1961
Peters, William E. Ohio Lands and their Subdivision (Second ed. Athens, OH. W.E.Peters, 1918)
Rose-Redwood, Reuben S. "The Surveyor's Model of the World: The Uses and Abuses of History in Introductory Surveying Textbooks" Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization v.39 no.4 (2004) 45-54
Sherman, C.E. Report of the Ohio Cooperative Topographic Survey (2nd ed), Original Ohio Land Subdivisions Vol. III, Ohio State Univ (1925)
Stewart, Lowell O. Public Land Surveys. History, Instructions, Methods (Ames, IA. Collegiate Press, 1935)
Thrower, Norman W. Original Survey and Land Subdivision. Monograph Series of the American Association of Geographers, Rand McNally and Company, Chicago (1966).
U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Manual of Surveying Instructions, (Washington, DC. U.S. Government Printing Office (1973).
Webber, Joe D. Early Public Land Surveys in the Northwest Territory and Procedures for the Retracement of Original Government Surveys in Illinois (1981)
White, C. Albert. A History of the Rectangular Survey System (Washington DC. Government Printing Office, 1982) This book can be downloaded from various internet sites
White, C. Albert. Initial Points of the Rectangular Survey System (Westminster, CO. Professional Land Surveyors of Colorado Inc. 1996)
Wilson, George R. "The first public land surveys in Indiana; Freeman's lines" Indiana Magazine of History v.12 no.1 (1916) 1-33
Winslow, Helen L. The Geographer's Department in the Public Domain, 1785-1789 (Unpublished M.A. Thesis, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1969)