Township plats of selected states

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This microfilm series reproduces original manuscript plats of townships in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, parts of Ohio, Oregon and Washington that were surveyed by deputy surveyors under the direction of the General Land Office (GLO), now called the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). They represent the earliest township and range public land surveys in the United States, beginning with the survey of the seven ranges in Ohio, 1795-87. Custody of the plats from these states and parts of states have been transferred to the National Archives. The BLM has retained custody of most of the manuscript plats and survey field notes of the remaining public domain states.

Three identical manuscript plats were prepared from the survey field notes for each township. One was given to the district and eventually turned over to the appropriate territory or state. One was sent to the General Land Office headquarters, and the remaining plat was retained by the local General Land Office having jurisdiction over the township for use in recording the initial disposition of the public lands. The headquarters and local office plats have been merged into one continuous series arranged alphabetically by state for ease of reference.

Each plat covers all or part of one township (composed of 36 sections of one square mile or 640 acres each). There are often several plats for a given township, including the local office and the headquarters plats, resurvey plats of a later date, fractional plats covering parts of townships surveyed at different dates, and fractional plats from resurveys where a discrepancy may have occurrred in the original survey.

In addition to showing the township and section lines, many of these plats also show drainage, roads and trails, Indian villages, boundaries of private land claims and grants, boundaries of Indian cessions and reservations, sections reserved for schools or other use, cultivated fields, swamplands, and forested areas. Acreage is indicated for fractional sections. Descriptive information about the soils and corner section posts is sometimes given on the reverse of the plats. Most of the plats formerly maintained in the local land offices bear annotations that show land entry numbers referring to the original sale or disposition of each parcel of land to the first landholders or entrymen. In a few instances the names of the original landholders or entrymen also appear on the plats.

The plats are arranged alphabetically by name of state, and thereunder, with the exception of plats of Ohio, by the governing principal meridian (numberical order, or roughly from north to south if names. "1 PM" refers to the First Principal Meridian), then the geographic quardrant of each meridian (northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest, with gaps as appropriate for a given state), then by range number, followed by township number. Plats of Ohio remain in their original bound volumes and can be located by referring to an index map.

Contents: ALABAMA; Huntsville meridian (also called "Northern part of Alabama"), St. Stephens meridian (also called "Southern part of Alabama" and "East of Pearl River"), Tallahassee meridian -- ILLINOIS; second principla meridian, third principal meridian, fourth principal meridian -- INDIANA; first principal meridian, second principal meridian -- IOWA; fifth principal meridian -- KANSAS; sixth principal meridian -- MISSISSIPPI; Chickasaw meridian, Choctaw meridian, Huntsville meridian (also called "Basis Meridian" and "Choctaw District"), Washington meridian (also called "West of the Pearl River"), St. Stephens meridian (also called "East of Pearl River") -- MISSOURI; fifth principal meridian -- OHIO; seven ranges (earliest survey; later part of Ohio River base), Ohio River base, Muskingum River base, U.S. military land, Scioto River base (first, second, and third), Michigan meridian, Twelve mile square reserve survey, First principal meridian, Great Miami base ("Townships north of river"), Great Miami base ("Townships east of river" also called "Between the Miamis") -- OKLAHOMA; Indian meridian, Cimarron meridian -- OREGON; Willamette meridian -- WASHINGTON; Willamette meridian -- WISCONSIN; Fourth principal meridian.

Microfilm of originals at the National Archives in Washington, D. C.

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