Federal land surveyors' field notes, 1804-1856.

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Federal land surveyors' field notes, 1804-1856.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38036090

Notes, recorded by individual Surveyors conducting interior and exterior section line surveys, include section and quarter section corner marking methods descriptions (i.e., setting a post in mound or a stone; indicating the distance and directional bearing of two bearing trees). Section line topographical features and vegetation were described (i.e., prairie; timber; bodies of water; salines; salt licks; islands; soil quality; bluffs; ridges; sloughs; and fields. Various manmade features (i.e., wagon trails; roads; settlements; buildings; Indian reservations; and Indian traces) were occasionally described; and French, English, and Indian claim boundaries were noted.

ledgers 495 volumes.

Illinois State Archive

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SNAC Resource ID: 7399606

Illinois State Archive

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United States. Surveyor General

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6740w3g (corporateBody)

Federal land surveys in Illinois were authorized by Congressional act (March 26, 1804), when the U. S. Surveyor General was given jurisdiction over all public land north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi Rivers. Surveys began in the western Vincennes Tract (1804) and southern Illinois (1806), then proceeded northward; covering all but most northern Illinois by 1831. When the Illinois surveys began, the Surveyor General was an independent officer under the President's direct su...