Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geology and Land Survey, Land Survey Program
20110722
MO 2011 Public Land Survey System Townships (SHP)
1.2
vector digital data
ftp://msdis.missouri.edu/pub/Administrative_Political_Boundaries/MO_2011_Public_Land_Survey_System_Townships_shp.zip
The township layer of the Missouri Public Land Survey System is a line and polygon attributed 1:24,000 scale layer based on the 7.5' United States Geological Survey (USGS) topographic maps.
This data set was created to provide a township layer for the public to more easily navigate the control database available through the department's map viewer Web application.
The metadata content associated with this data set was reviewed by Elizabeth Retherford on 20110809. The metadata content review is intended to ensure that all of the required content is present. The components comprising the metadata document were reviewed by Elizabeth Retherford on 20110809. The metadata component review is intended to ensure that required metadata components are consistent and understandable to data consumers.
The Public Land Survey System (PLSS) was created by the enactment of the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. These two ordinances provided for the systematic survey and monumentation of public domain lands with the intent of transferring these lands to private citizens through sale. To this day the PLSS forms the basis for the delineation of lands and transfer of ownership in Missouri (The Public Land Survey System (PLSS), 2009).
The system as laid out in the laws called for a rectangular system of Townships six (6) miles square arranged in a grid of ranges and divided up into 36 sections of 640 acres each. The Township and Range lines were to be surveyed first and the Townships divided up into section starting in the south east corner. Once a line and its associated corners were surveyed, this original survey was regarded as the basis for all subsequent work (White, 1983). This practice meant that any error in the surveying of the Township lines would result in the final sections along the west and north boundaries of the Townships being either smaller or larger than one square mile. It also meant that where a Township or section line did not parallel the meridian or baseline but had been approved, the corners as marked were considered authoritative. This has resulted in areas where sections are not rectangular in shape.
The system also calls for the beds of navigable bodies of water to be omitted from the surveys as well as specifying that Townships shall be closed against the surveyed state lines (White, 1983). This has resulted in partial, or fractional, townships along the edges of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and along the state boundaries. In Missouri, the General Instructions to Deputy Surveyors indicated that "Whenever your course may be obstructed by insuperable obstacles? you will prolong the line across such obstacles? by a traverse or trigonometrical operation, until you regain the line on the opposite side" which has resulted in Townships along the Missouri river that have sections with the same number on both sides of the river due to errors in the survey of the Township lines (White, 1983). This has also resulted in fractional sections along the rivers and other water bodies which were deemed to be navigable at the time of the survey.
While the system began in the late 1780s, it was not until the early 1800s that the system was extended into what is now the State of Missouri. The office of Deputy Surveyor for the Missouri territory was established in 1806 but the Fifth Principle Meridian, which was to control the surveys in Missouri, was not established until November of 1815. By this time numerous private land claims had been established and surveyed, typically based on the old French and Spanish titles and grants. Where these "surveys of private confirmed claims" were encountered, the Deputy Surveyors were instructed to follow the old lines or at least conform to the lines of the original survey. These surveys were to be based on information provided to the surveyor by the claimant and it was up to the surveyor to determine the correctness of the information that he was provided (White, 1983). This practice has created numerous situations where the rectangular grid system is interrupted by one or more land grants.
In other cases where a private claim had not previously been surveyed but the claimant could provide sufficient evidence of a claim, the surveyor was instructed to survey it in a manner so as not to interfere with an older surveyed prior claim. If the new claimant had made improvements to his property which were found to be on land already surveyed by a previous claim the new claim was allowed to "interfere with said old survey, so much as may be necessary to include the improvement upon which it is founded." (White, 1983). This has resulted in many instances where a piece of land is considered as part of multiple land grants. Other situations that may have evolved out of this situation are areas where the land was surveyed as sections and then a land grant resurveyed afterwards, resulting in pieces of land that are considered both part of a section and part of a land grant.
White, C. Albert, (1983). A History of the Rectangular Survey System. Washington, D.C.: United State Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management.
The Public Land Survey System (PLSS). (2009). Retrieved May 22, 2009, from http://www.nationalatlas.org/articles/boundaries/a_plss.html
20110722
publication date
None planned
-95.774888
-88.898013
40.620695
35.962590
None
Township and Range
US Surveys
Public Land Survey System
systems
surveys
Land grant
lines
boundaries
boundary
st_plss_townships
PLSS
None
Missouri
This is a publicly funded data set.
Although all data in this data set have been compiled by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the department as to the accuracy of the data and related materials.
Bruce Wilson
Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geology and Land Survey, Land Survey Program
Technical Assistant IV
physical address
111 Fairgrounds Road
Rolla
Missouri
65401
United States
mailing address
P. O. Box 250
Rolla
Missouri
65402
United States
(573) 368-2327
800-735-2966
(573) 368-2379
bruce.wilson@dnr.mo.gov
Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central time
Bruce L. Wilson, Missouri Department of Natural Resources- Missouri Land Survey
Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 3; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.3.1.3500
Unclassified
Accuracy comparable to USGS 7.5' topographic map Digital Raster Graphics series
Based on 1:24,000 scale source data.
+-12.2 Meters
1:24,000
USGS 7.5' topographic map Digital Raster Graphics
Locations of section corners and section lines
The Public Land Survey System (PLSS) grid was merged into townships and United States Survey land grants (USS). Notes were added to the COMMENTS field to correctly identify dual townships as being either "North of Missouri River" or "South of Missouri River". An attribute field entitled URL was added and populated with a link to a pdf image of the corresponding Government Land Office (GLO) plat showing the township or the US Survey.
20110722
Bruce Wilson
Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geology and Land Survey, Land Survey Program
Technical Assistant IV
physical address
111 Fairgrounds Road
Rolla
Missouri
65401
United States
mailing address
P.O. Box 250
Rolla
Missouri
65402-0250
United States
(573) 368-2327
800-735-2966
(573) 368-2379
bruce.wilson@dnr.mo.gov
Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central time
Vector
G-polygon
5350
Label point
72343
GT-polygon composed of chains
72343
Node, planar graph
98714
Point
1632
Universal Transverse Mercator
15
0.999600
-93.000000
0.000000
500000.000000
0.000000
coordinate pair
0.000000
0.000000
meters
North American Datum of 1983
Geodetic Reference System 80
6378137.000000
298.257222
0.000100
Explicit elevation coordinate included with horizontal coordinates
township_for_web
FID
Internal feature number.
ESRI
Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.
Shape
Feature geometry.
ESRI
Coordinates defining the features.
TWP_NUM
Survey township number.
0
Indicates a land grant, not part of the rectangular survey.
1 - 67
indicates the township number
TWP_DIR
Direction from survey baseline.
N
North of survey baseline.
S
South of survey baseline.
Blank
Land grant, not part of the rectangular survey.
RNG_NUM
Survey range number.
0
Indicates a land grant, not part of the rectangular survey.
1 - 43
indicates the range number
RNG_DIR
Direction from principal meridian.
E
East of principal meridian.
W
West of principal meridian.
Blank
land grant, not part of the rectangular survey.
GRANT_NAME
Named land grant that is contained within a GLO_SERIES of towns and villages surveyed by the General Land Office that are not part of the General GLO Series.
OTHER_IDS
Provides additional identification information where land grants overlap the PLSS grid or other land grants
LABEL_
Concatenated string of township and range designation or land grant with number.
COMMENTS
Provides additional descriptive information about the polygon such as its position relative to the Missouri river (e.g. same section found on either side of the river), the type of land grant (i.e. school, road, town, military reservation), or land surveyed based on a different grid origin (i.e. 6th principal meridian)
GLO_SERIES
Towns and Villages surveyed by the Genaral Land Office, each "Series" is numbered seperately so that a tract is referred to as "Survey # ___" of the ___ Series. This provides information about which set of General Land Office surveys can be used to find a particular land grant.
General
A set of surveys of land grants that are platted in the General series of surveys conducted by the General Land Office.
blank
A set of surveys excluding land grants that are platted in the General series of surveys conducted by the General Land Office.
Town of St. Louis
A set of surveys that are platted in the Town of St. Louis
T45N - R07E
Land Survey microfilm location;
721/1169 - 721/11688 (F-8) Explanations - St. Louis Lots (listed in Block order)
721/12008 - 721/12057 (F-24) Field Notes Surveys in St. Louis
721/12508 - 721/12558 (F-48) Brown's surveys in Old Town of St. Louis
721/12084 - 721/12124 (F-26) Record of St. Louis Surveys
Town of Carondelet
A set of surveys that are platted in the Town of Carondelet
T44N - R07E
Land Survey microfilm location;
721/11742 - 721/11760A1 (F-13) J.C. Brown's Plats & Descriptions of Carondelet
721/12164 - 721/12176 (F-30) Record Book Surveys Carondelet Lands
Town of St. Charles
A set of surveys that are platted in the Town of St. Charles
T46N - R05E, T47N - R05E
Land Survey microfilm location;
721/12351 - 721/12402 (F-39) Brown's surveys in and near St. Charles
Town of St. Genevieve
A set of surveys that are platted in the Town of St. Genevieve
T38N - R09E
Village of New Bourbon
A set of surveys that are platted in the Village of New Bourbon
T37N - R09E, T38N - R09E
Land Survey microfilm location;
721/4419 - 721/4466 (F - 15) Brown's Surveys of Ste. Genevieve & New Bourbon,
720/1957 - 720/1987 Surveys of Ste. Genevieve & New Bourbon. Roll #6
720/2031 - 720/2063 Surveys of Ste. Genevieve & New Bourbon. Roll #7
Village of St. Ferdinand
A set of surveys that are platted in the Village of St. Ferdinand
T47N - R06E
Land Survey microfilm location;
721/11812 - 721/11830B1 (F-15) Surveys of St. Ferdinand
721/11852B2 - 721/11865 (F-16) Record of Surveys - St. Ferdinand
721/11866 - 721/11877 Record of St. Ferdinand Surveys
Village a Robert
A set of surveys that are platted in the Village a Robert (or Marais des Liards)
T46N - R06E
Land Survey microfilm location;
721/11830B2 - 721/11835 (F-15) Surveys of Village a Robert
721/11847A3 - 721/11852B1 (F-16) Record of Surveys - Village a Robert
721/0126E06 Volume 21, pages 133-139
Village of Portage Des Sioux
A set of surveys that are platted in the Village of Portage Des Sioux
T48N - R06E
Land Survey microfilm location;
721/11714 - 721/11731 (F-11) Brown's Surveys of Portage Des Sioux
721/11773 - 721/11805A (F-14) Final Copies of Brown's Surveys of Portage des Sioux (Surveys 1-91)
721/12058 - 721/12083 (F-25) Surveys of Portage des Sioux (Surveys 92-173)
Village of New Madrid
A set of surveys that are platted in the Village of New Madrid
T22N - R14E
Land Survey microfilm location;
721/11732 - 721/11741 (F-12) J.C. Brown's Surveys of New Madrid
Village of Little Prairie
A set of surveys that are platted in the Village of Little Prairie
T18N - R13E
Village of Mine a Breton
A set of surveys that are platted in the Village of Mine a Breton
T37N - R02E
Land Survey microfilm location;
721/11836 - 721/11847A2 (F-16) Record of Surveys - Mine a Breton
LABEL_1
More commonly identifiable label, USS 329 instead of Landgrant00329, T56N R32W instead of T56NR32W.
Downloadable Data
Although all data in this data set have been compiled by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the department as to the accuracy of the data and related materials. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the department in the use of these data or related materials.
37.900
20110722
Bruce Wilson
Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geology and Land Survey, Land Survey Program
Technical Assistant IV
physical address
111 Fairgrounds Road
Rolla
Missouri
65401
United States
mailing address
P.O. Box 250
Rolla
Missouri
65402
United States
(573) 368-2327
800-735-2966
(573) 368-2379
bruce.wilson@dnr.mo.gov
Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central time
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata
FGDC-STD-001-1998
local time
http://www.esri.com/metadata/esriprof80.html
ESRI Metadata Profile
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