Introduction

The public land survey progressed in a non-continuous and non-contiguous fashion across the United States. Treaties between the federal government and Indians extinguished the aboriginal rights of occupancy and use. Congress responded to the demands for the title to land from the newly created states, from residents and prospective residents, and from corporations by authorizing and funding the extension of the survey. And so, the effective colonization of the United States ultimately rested on the course, progress, and detail of the public land survey. "The security of title emanating under this system greatly contributed to the rapid settlement of the public lands" (Interior, 1849 19). In addition, "(t)he survey township in the public domain provided for the basis for a convenient and easily identifiable unit of local government. Roads were laid out, and tax rolls, election districts, and common schools were organized and managed in accord with the township" (Carstenson,1963 xvii).

The importance of the spread of the public land survey does not merely rest on the fact that it divided land for ownership and jurisdictional purposes. The surveyor, "with the fur traders, the miners, and the early settlers ,...formed the vanguards of a civilization" (Agnew, 1941, 369). In many instances the surveyor was the first white person to see a particular area, certainly he was the first to assess the nature of the land. His factual record provided states, corporations, and individuals with information needed to make choices about where to acquire land. "For over 100 years the public land surveyors were the most important single source of information on newly opened lands" (Pattison,1956 6). Anyone who wanted to acquire land used the field notes and the plats made by the deputy surveyor. Even the federal government relied on the information provided by the surveyors to draw maps of newly explored territory (War Dept., 1855).

By 1847, the public land survey had spread to the St. Croix River. Until 1852 the surveys in what became Minnesota Territory were restricted to the area between the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers, the only lands that had been ceded at that time (Figure 1). These were the surveys that allowed those individuals forcibly removed from the vicinity of Fort Snelling in 1839, when a Lt. Thompson drew the boundaries of the militiary reservation, to acquire title to the land on which they were squatting, the same land that was included in the plat of St. Paul just before the arrival of the public land surveyors. These surveys were also the surveys that defined the course of the Mississippi River.

Most importantly perhaps, these surveys were among the last in the nation to be carried out under the auspices of independently minded Surveyors General, each with "his own individual concept of how the survey should be performed in his area of authority" (White, 1982 90). In 1852, the Surveyor General of Wisconsin and Iowa, who was responsible for the survey in Minnesota Territory, was instructed to adopt what has become known as the Oregon Manual (Squires, 1992b 20).

The surveys were carried out by deputy surveyors under contract to Surveyors General George W. Jones (1845-1849), Caleb Booth (1849-1851), and George B. Sargent (1851-1853). Using general instructions of 1846 (Dodds et al, 1943 69-79) and 1851 (Dodds et a1,1943 102-116; White, 1982 385-399) and the special instructions given each deputy in his contract. A letter from the Surveyor General to each deputy contained, "a list of the townships and ranges included in the contract; whether township or subdivision; place of beginning and places of ending; instructions as to connections with adjacent surveys; diagrams showing pertinent data for areas surveyed; copies of general instructions; innumerable special reference; and others" (Dodds et al, 1943 197). All of the contracts used the 4th Principal Meridian and the Wisconsin Baseline for reference. The survey included the 3rd and 4th correction lines and the township exteriors and subdivision fines in the area bounded by the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers. Its northern extension was defined by the limits of the 1837 cession, Fort Gaines on the Nokay River (Figure 2). Although not marked on the map published in 1849, the north/south exteriors of two townships, in R22W and R23 W, stretched across the Mississippi River to include part of the Fort Snelling military reservation. From 1847-150,1100 miles of township exteriors were drawn and from 1850-1852 most of the townships were subdivided. The net ran north to T49N, two township north of the 4th correction line, and from the St. Croix westwards to Mississippi. The exteriors of the extreme northeastern township was not drawn. The township had to close against the boundary line between Minnesota Territory and Wisconsin that was not drawn until 1852.

The Data

The way in which the survey spread across a particular area is documented by a variety of data. This account is based on the published annual reports of the Surveys General of Wisconsin and Iowa to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, outlined in an earlier issue of DisClosures (Winter, 1922a), supplemented by the maps compiled by Ron Olson and Robert Sarles described in Dis-Closures (February, 1978).

These annual reports, in most cases based on the reports of the deputy surveyors as they carried out their contracts, describe what had been surveyed during the year in the surveying district comprising the territories and states of Wisconsin and Iowa and, until 1857, Minnesota Territory. Not only do the reports describe the difficulties the deputies faced in the field during the year but also the lands that the Surveyor General recommended for survey the following year. Many of them contain maps to illustrate the course of the survey.

The Commissioner of the General Land Office was required to submit an annual report along with the reports of all of the surveyors general to his superior, the Secretary of the Treasury, after 1849 the Secretary of the Interior. In his report he comments on them individually but places them all into perspective relating them to the work of the entire General Land Office. Part of his report might focus on the difficulties faced by the deputy surveyors during the field season, sometimes outlining the similar problems faced by all in a specific surveying district, sometimes singling out individuals becase of special problems. He also recommends the areas he thinks should be surveyed the following year. Not surprisingly perhaps, he usually followed the recommendations of the individual surveyors general.

Lands recommended for survey were of two kinds; land in demand by individuals wishing to acquire title, including those already residing, illegally, on the land, and land being used, illegally, for timber harvesting and mining. Surveying, creating parcels that would eventually be privately owned, was seen by surveyors general both as a means of rewarding the settlers already in a particular area and attracting immigrants, and a means of protecting the timber. Congress authorized and appropriated money for surveying particular lands, usually those recommended by the surveyor general of a particular surveying district the previous year. Surveying the lands for which there were ready and willing buyers illustrates the dilemma faced by successive federal governments that tried to reconcile conflicting national objectives in conveying title to parcels of land.

The deputy surveyors were important people. They were the first white people to see a tract of land and assess its quality for settlement and their descriptions guided the choices of prospective landowners. Many of the surveyors involved in these early surveys of Minnesota had been surveyors in Michigan, Wisconin or Iowa. Elisha Norris, John T. Everett, and Isaac Higbee, for example, had all carried out surveys in Iowa before moving to Minnesota (Dodds et al, 1943) (Table 1). After their stint as surveyors many deputies became settlers while others went on to play a greater role in the survey than that of a deputy surveyor. Henry A. Wiltsie, for example, became the Surveyor General of Wisconsin and Iowa in 1863.

There were many opportunities for deputy surveyors to make accidental or deliberate error because they were virtually unsupervised in the field. Although surveyors general constantly expressed concern over the accuracy of the deputies' work and although there were stiff penalties for discovered defective and fraudulent work, a scheme for systematically checking the accuracy of survey work evolved slowly. Individual surveyors general developed their own methods of discouraging defective surveys. George Sargent in Dubuque, for example, withheld 10% of each contract to pay for an examination of all returned work (General Land Office, 1951). Despite the numerous opportunities for inaccurate and fraudulent surveys the work of deputy surveyors was truly remarkable. As Jesse Fant noted, "The men who made the Public Land Surveys varied greatly in technical competence. There were some outstanding and well educated men, some politicians and many frontiersmen. The latter classification probably is most typical of the early government surveyor. A frontiersman exists and carries on his work ahead of civilization, in effect a competent, self-sufficient, curious, adventuresome, and self-sustaining individual. He may have lacked some surveying skills but nevertheless he deserves our admiration for doing a difficult job. Less than five percent of the surveys done prior to 1910 (when the contract system ended) have been proven fraudulent. This is a remarkable record considering that most of the work was unchecked" (Fant, 1970 4).

Often surveyors ran into unforeseen problems in fulfilling a contract. A late start because of a late contract, delays because of inclement weather, and difficulties with Indians and squatters who obliterated monuments, destroyed camps, and stole supplies, were not unusual occurrences. All delays cost the deputy money because he was responsible for paying his surveying crew. Except under unusual circumstances, no money came from the government until the contract had been fulfilled. When the fieldwork part of the contract was complete the deputy returned his field notes and plats to the Surveyor General's office. Here, draughtsmen prepared three copies of the plat and they, and the field notes, were examined and approved by the Surveyor General, and the deputy paid. One copy of the plat was sent to the land district office, to be available to prospective settlers, one was kept at the Surveyor General's office, and one sent to Washington, "for the information of the government" (White, 1982 184) .

Table 1 - Checklist of Minnesota Surveyors, 1847-1852

Theodore Conkey
John Dunn
Hiram C. Fellows
James E. Freeman
John M. Gay
John T. Haight
George Hamilton
Andrew J. Hewitt
Daniel Higbee
Isaac N. Higbee
Jesse T.Jarrett J.D.C.
Jenkins E. Jones, Jr.
William A. Jones
Henry Maddin
James M. Marsh
Joseph M. Marshall
John Ryan
John M. Smith
George R. Stuntz
J.E. W hitcher
Henry A. Wiltse

Annual Report for 1847

The Surveyor General, George W. Jones, writes,

"The field operations ...have encountered extreme difficulties from the spring floods in Wisconsin and the summer drought in Iowa. Owing to the former cause, the swamps that pervade the unsurveyed portion of the territory were rendered much more than usually impassable, causing several of the deputies to relinquish their work, and proving to those that remained a most serious cause of detention and distress. In Iowa an extension of contract time has been repeatedly asked for; the reason, in some instances, that there was no water, and in others, that the water was so bad that it could only be used at the risk of health, which it frequently sacrificed. The earlier surveys in the "Chippewa district" have met with delay from a want of knowledge of the country and a consequent difficulty of making appropriate outfits" (p. 84).

He notes the nature of northern Wisconsin Territory, including part of what is now northern Minnesota, north of the third correction line and west of the fourth principal meridian,

"Throughout this wide extent of country a superior quality of white, and occasionally yellow, pine timber is interspersed with hemlock, balsam-fir, white cedar, tamarack, spruce, and white birch. The pine is formed upon the ridges of "drift" that more generally adjoin the lakes and larger streams, but which are dispersed to an extent that renders them a characteristic of the country.

"The quantity and quality of the timber upon this side of the meridian are believed to be sufficient that, if brought immediately into market, to insure, on that account alone, the sale of nearly the whole of the region in question; but stripped of this inducement to purchasers they must remain for an indefinite period in the hands of the government, as they are extremely swampy, and possessed of an almost totally uncultivatable soil. The consumption of the pine here described already amounts to more than seventy millions of feet annually; to which may be added an equal quantity that is wasted by the prodigal system of lumbering there practiced. The best quantity of timber is alone cut only the best portions of which are converted into lumber and the remainder left to decay - which practice will, undoubtedly, be persistent so long as the timber is the property of the government"(pp. 85-85).

Of the surveys in this area, he writes,

"The progress of the...surveys, in the socalled mineral portions of Wisconsin, encountered unexpected and embarrassing delay from the peculiarly difficult and almost impossible character of the country. In most instances the surveying parties were forced to carry upon their backs all of their provisions and camp equipage, not only over their entire work, but also over the country intervening the same, and the nearest depot accessible either by means of a packhorse or canoe. The surface is generally an alternation from small lakes and ponds to cranberry marshes and tamarack swamps. Along the streams, however, there is almost invariably a narrow border of drift, elevated above the general level of the country and timbered by white or yellow pine. The same region is characterized by uplifts of trap rock, extremely difficult and difficult of passage, and in the vicinity of which the agency of the "needle" is entirely lost by the sudden and extreme changes of magnetic attraction. Had the country been as well known before as after the return of these surveys, the time actually occupied in their execution would have been considered the shortest in which they could possibly have been performed. Unfortunately, however, the time in which the several deputies contracted to execute the work became the basis for determining the time for opening the land office in the Chippewa land district, and the extension of the contract time which necessarily ensued, operated in delay which was wholly unavoidable on the part of this office or the deputies engaged" (p. 107).

He recommends that some surveys in Wisconsin be intermittent "until the discovery of valuable minerals or the progress of settlement warrants their extension" (p. 86). He recommends, on the advice of David Owens, the immediate survey of lands in the Chippewa land district because of their timber and geological value. He had let contracts for the survey of the fourth correction line from the Michigan boundary to the Mississippi "the establishment of which is indispensable to the survey of the copper lands on the southern shore of Lake Superior, and of the country actually embracing the greater and better part of the St. Croix Valley pinery" (p. 107).

The first surveys west of the St. Croix were made in the summer of 1847 (Fig. 3). Henry A. Wiltsie, described as a deputy "whose character for perseverance and competency insured not only the earliest but the most accurate survey," ran the third correction line under contract May 22,1847. His contract called for him to extend the fourth principal meridian to Lake Superior and run the third correction line to the Mississippi, and cost $2,204.76. Work on the third correction line took thirty days. Although much of his work was in present-day Wisconsin, this survey effort is worthy of comment. His contract was completed late and his letter to the Surveyor General, which is included in the annual report, recounts some of his difficulties. About the principal meridian survey he wrote, I contracted to execute this work at ten dollars per mile, the least possible rate at which it could have been executed; but would not again, after a lifetime of experience in the field, and a great fondness for camp life, enter upon the same, or a similar survey, at any price whatsoever" (p. 97).

His letter tells of considerable hardships typical of those faced by the deputies in the field. He writes of "dreadful swamps" through which the survey party passed, the windfalls "over which we clumb and clambered." the deep and rapid creeks "all at their highest stages of water," the "swarms or rather clouds of mosquitoes, and other, still more troublesome insects," and cloudy weather.

"Our principal suffering, however, grew out of the exhaustion of our provisions, coarse as they were. When this occurred, every member of my party was crippled or in some way disabled by difficult service which they had already performed. Wom out by fatigue and hardship, and nearly destitute of clothes, they had now to make a forced march of three days for the lake in search of provision, of which, during that three days, they had not a mouthful" (p. 96).
 
 

The Annual Report for 1848

There was very little surveying west of the St. Croix during the year. The 4th correction line was run some 60 miles west of the river. As was standard practice in the Wisconsin and Iowa surveying district, the line was located 10 townships, approximately 1° of latitude, north of the 3rd correction line.

The Annual Report for 1849

The Surveyor General Caleb Booth, reported a "daring and unprovoked robbery" of Deputy James Marsh who was running the second correction line to the Mississippi River, by a band of Dakota. He notes "the progress of the surveys has been interrputed in a manner to excite serious apprehension, not only for the progress of the survey, but for the safety of the deputies" (p. 243). In addition, he notes that the surveys were delayed,

"in consequence of an unusual prevalence and depth of snow and severe cold, which continued from November to March inclusive, and extremely high water table, especially in Iowa, during the months of April and May, so that the surveys contracted for in December, and some of those contracted for three months earlier, could not with propriety, be prosecuted during the months between October and June. The snow, for five months, averaged two feet of depth, and the high water table that followed the melting of this body of snow was prolonged by a rainy spring... six of those whose contracts dated eiiher in July or August completed their work in the midst of the snow, some of whom had every member of their party
severely frozen, and all suffered extremely from the difficult travelling and excessive cold" (p. 232).

In the appropriations legislation for 1849, Congress instructed the surveyors general to survey lands "which would accommodate the largest number of settlers, and command the most ready sale when brought to market" (p. 233).

As a result Booth reports having contracted for 1100 miles of township lines in Minnesota Territory, practically all of the lands that had been ceded by the Dakota and Ojibway which, "will accurately define the limits of such tracts on the Rum River, and upon the St. Croix and its tributaries, as are the timbered by pine, and will determine the location of the settlements which, judging from the emigration of the present season in that direction, must be extensive and rapidly increasing" (p. 233).

Commenting on the relationship between settlement and survey he notes "(t)he track of emigration and settlement... has been a guide to the subdivisions" (p. 233). Included in this report is a letter from David Dale Owen recommending which lands should be surveyed in response to his geological survey in 18471848. He particularly mentions lands bordering on the Mississippi between the mouth of the Rum and Crow Wing Rivers, land "generally valuable for agricultural purposes, especially as that country is filling up rapidly" (p. 241).

Booth writes that the surveys could not be completed in the northeast of the area because the territorial boundary had not yet been run. The Minnesota surveys were to close against the designated boundary line between the State of Wisconsin and Minnesota Territory. Even though part of this proposed boundary line was over land owned by Objibway, Booth did not foresee any problem in running the line. "As the district that will be excluded from survey is reported to be highly valuable both for its timber and minerals, it is presumed that authority will be given me for the establishment of this line next season" (p. 238).

The act establishing the Territory of Minnesota authorized the Surveyor General to run and mark the northern boundary of Iowa, a boundary that would later be used as a baseline for the surveys west of the Mississippi. Booth wanted to let the contracts early arguing that if the survey started later than May 1 "there is great danger that the setting in of winter will prevent its completion in one season" and would add $5,000 to the estimate. He writes,

"This boundary, throughout nearly its whole extent, traverses the territory of the Sioux Indians - a tribe that, upon a recent occasion, fearlessly and insultingly plundered a party while in the execution of a public land survey under authority of government, and who have, upon previous occasions, shown no hesitancy in perpetrating open and unprovoked robberies. In view of these facts, I respectfully suggest the importance of occupying Fort Atkinson with a force of dragoons, to awe, and, if necessary, chastise these Indians during the survey of the boundary line" (p. 235).

The Annual Report for 1850

The Commissioner of the General Land Office James Butterfield writes, "The object in pressing forward the surveys has been to keep pace with the settlement, and to enable enterprising pioneers to avail themselves of the benefits of the pre-emption act of 1841, which in express terms excludes all persons who settle on unsurveyed land" (p. 2). Surveyor General Caleb Booth writes, "The season was unusually favorable, enabling all those deputies whose districts were located upon prairie, with a single exception, to complete their surveys before interruption from frost" (p. 43).

"All the territory of Minnesota not owned and occupied by Indian tribes is surveyed into townships, equal to 3,317,760
acres; the southerly, thirty-three of which, equal to 760,320 acres, have been surveyed into sections; and fifteen more, skirting the Mississippi River and rendered fractional by it, completed. These townships adjoin, upon the south, the sectional surveys executed in 1847, and extend north of Sauk Rapids and to a point only thirty miles south of Fort Gaines. They are traversed by the Red River road, are dotted with civilized habitation, and already bear strong marks of agricultural industry. It is designed to resume the subdivision surveys in this Territory as soon as funds are placed at my disposal, and to complete all such as have been or may after be reported to be valuable for agricultural or lumbering purposes" (p. 45).

He describes the particular difficulties of Theodore Conkey, "a tried and esteemed deputy," who was assigned some of the townships skirting the Mississippi, A westerly bend in the river, of which this office had no knowledge, caused his district to exceed its estimated size by about one hundred and fifty miles, and protracted its execution beyond which the advance return was required,

"All his supplies had to be packed on men's backs; and such were the obsta-cles that progress was next thing to impossible. His assistants twice "struck" for higher wages, and twice deserted him, refusing to work for any wages, causing him to suspend work until their places could be filled from the settle-ments outside his district "(p. 58).

After Conkey had completed his field-work in midwinter, he suffered acute rheumatism that prevented him from com-pleting his work. Until his returns were made the Surveyor General did not know how much work Conkey had done. When he did complete his work in April 1850, however, his notes were deemed inadequate and he had to go back into the field in June 1850.

A prime concern of the year was to delimit the boundaries of the pine timbered lands.

"The pine timber stretches over a vast area of the country, but wherever the surveys have been carried is inter-spersed with, and forms but a small proportion of, the timber of which the forest is composed. The streams at some points, and many of the small lakes, are belted with this timber; but these belts are very narrow. A large proportion of them have already been prostrated, a part consumed, and the remainder left to rot; and a swarm of laborers are constantly employed, not in the development of resources (as is true of the agriculturalists and the miner), but in their impoverishment. This wasteful consumption of timber is constantly in-creasing; and notwithstanding the rapid progress made by the detailed surveys, there has not been brought into market any considerable quantity of this class of land" (p. 43).

Booth argues,

"It is of the highest importance that the pine bearing lands of Wisconsin and Min-nesota be thrown upon the market at the earliest day practicable. These lands are cultivable only to a limited extent, but throughout the various localities there are distributed arable lands, tim-bered in large proportion by sugar-maple, and sometimes in small propor-tion by pine. Wherever the pine is abstracted, the land, not being tillable, is thereafter unsalable, and the sure-ending lands which are adapted to agriculture are thus lessened in value by their great distance from a produce market. Where-as, should the pine-bearing and agricul-tural lands be brought into market simul-taneously, the interests of the lumber-man and the farmer being reciprocal, both would benefit in a high degree - the former in being saved the exorbitant price heretofore paid for the transporta-tion of his supplies, and the latter an equal amount in the home consumption of his produce. Thus, by the lands being speedily surveyed, the pine timber may be made to sell - not only the lands upon which it stands, but many of the adjoin-ing lands ' (p. 47).

A letter from Deputy Surveyor Jas Freeman dated February 2,1850, des-cribes what he found during his contract,

"The district of township lines, with the survey of which I had the honor to be intrusted by you on the 9th of July last, is timbered, as nearly as I can estimate, as follows: one-sixth by aspen; one-sixth by white and yellow birch; one-sixth by balsam; and one-third by tamarack, spruce, find, elm, ash, oak and ironwood - their prevalence following the order here named. The pine is so interspersed among other timber as to be of difficult access; indeed, two sections could scarcely be found upon which the pine is sufficiently dense to employ a company of "loggers" one winter. Townships 41 of range 17 and 18, town-ships 41 and 42 of ranges 20 and 23, and townships 37 and 38 of range 18, contain the most and best pine - are adjacent to streams of sufficient size to float logs; and portions, I have no doubt, of these townships, would sell if immediately surveyed and brought to market. I say immediately, because much of the pine is already disappeared, and much more will disappear, this and every succeeding winter, before the companies of "log-gers," who make a lodgement wherever they can find a grove or skirt of this timber of such size as to occupy them during the winter. Townships 37, 38, 39 and 40, of ranges 20 and 21 (except the tamarack and spruce swamps, which are abundantly interspersed through them), possess a dry cultivable soil, and should on that account, I think, be surveyed. The townships not enumerated above would not sell if brought into market, and therefore, I think, should not be surveyed" (p. 59).

The problem with surveys adjacent to the eastern boundary continued.

"The act for the discontinuance of the office of surveyor general, etc., approved June 12, 1840, requires that whenever the surveys and records within any state shall be complete, the surveyor general shall deliver all the records and papers pertaining thereto to the officer ap-pointed by the proper authorities to receive them. In order to comply with this law, it is encumbent upon the surveyor general to cause separate returns of surveys, num-bering from the same base but in differ-ent States Compliance with this requirement is without difficulty or expense, when the boundaries are defined prior to the survey of the contiguous lands; but when the survey precede such boundar-ies, much difficulty may be experienced and expenses incurred in causing the requisite separation. An instance of the latter case has occurred in this district. During the year 1847-48, and before the boundary of Wisconsin and Minnesota was fixed upon, the surveys were pushed rapidly forward, the subdivision surveys being extended along the St. Croix river, from its junction with the Mississippi river, very nearly or quite to the point where the meridian boundary, as defined by the act of 6th of August, 1846, will intersect it. The field notes and plats of thse surveys consequently embrace lands upon either and both sides of the boundary, wherever a township was tra-versed by the St. Croix" (p. 49-50).

The Annual Report for 1851

Concern for this year were; the con-tinued inability to survey the boundary lines between Minnesota and Iowa and between Minnesota and Wisconsin, the difficulties of survey because of wet weather, the continued illegal logging operations, and the inspection of the work of the deputy surveyors in the field.

George B. Sargent writes, "The high floods of the season rendered the condition of the country extremely unpropitious for surveying operations, so much so, that the surveyors were com-pelled to abandon their work until the waters had subsided and some to relin-quish it altogether" (p. 13).

Although these conditions were a dis-appointment to him, they were major economic hardship to the deputies. He mentions that because of the delay in the Senate ratification of the treaties with Dakota for the lands west of the Missis-sippi, the survey of the boundary between Minnesota and Iowa, was postponed, "in consequence of the unusually rainy season, the postponement is believed to have resulted beneficially to the work. A portion of the country over which the line will pass is represented to be low and wet, interspersed with lakes and marshes" (p. 15).

He also mentions that the authorization to run the eastern boundary was not made until July, 1851, far too late in the season for the contracts to be made. However, he had let contracts for 38 town-ships, some of the most valuable pine-bearing lands. He expresses concern about the quality of the survey work and intends to reserve money from the indi-vidual contracts to inspect the work. He also expresses the concern of his prede-cessors, the necessity of protecting the timberlands.

"So far as has been ascertained, the best pine localities have not yet been reached by even the lumbermen; yet millions of feet are annually abstracted and the lands thereby rendered comparatively valueless. Every season they push further and further into the best districts, selecting only such as are most valuable and easiest of access, and destroying more timber than they use. Unless some plan be devised to stop their operations, all the lands in close proximity to any stream that will even float logs will be utterly despoiled. On the Snake River alone, the government is not only losing in value more timber annually than the whole appropriations made for surveys during the year, but the contiguous country is overflowed, and thereby ruined by dams thrown across the river for the purpose of forcing the logs over the rapids. In a single boom below the mouth of the Snake River there were some eight to ten thousand logs of the very choicest pine waiting for an opportunity to be taken out; and a steamboat owned at this place has been doing a good business this season, simply by towing rafts through Lake Pepin. It is a well-known fact that the mills on the St. Croix do not purchase one-fifth of the timber cut, and some idea may be formed of the immense quantity of timber produced, when it is remembered that all the cities and towns on the Mississippi River, and the country back of them for hundreds of miles, are furnished with lumber and timber from the United States land north of the Wisconsin River. On all the tributaries of the St. Croix, this timber is found to greater of lesser extent, and the land is valuable on this account and no other. It is seldom found in very extensive bodies, and is generally so mixed with other timber, that it is impossible accurately to define its locality. There is some yet remaining in township 37 and 38, range 18; 39 and 40 of range 20; and 38 and 39 of range 21, but much has been cut in this district; and in single township, viz: Wood Lake, logging companies have been at work for the last five years, and seven companies are already organized to commence operations this coming winter. The district assigned to Mr. Gay, particularly that portion on the head waters of the Kettle River, is from the information I can obtain, one of the finest pine bearing portions of Minnesota, and has not yet been worked. Preparations for this purpose have, however, already commenced, and means are being taken to render the rapids navigable. East of the present surveys on the Namekagan and other rivers the quality of pine is equally good, and the timber more abundant; but being much more difficult of access, lumbering operations have not been extended in that direction.- The few seizures made by some of the marshalls have had, I think, anything but a desirable effect, and, in my opinion, the only effective security against these trespassers is the speedy survey and sale of the lands. Unless they are brought into market, depredations will continue, and in all probability will be committed by a class of men having the means to operate at a larger scale" (p. 72).

The Annual Report for 1852

The Minnesota/Iowa border, authorized by the law of March 3, 1849, was completed. George R. Stuntz was put in charge of running the Minnesota/Wisconsin boundary line. Only 24 contracts for 14 townships were let, "these border or are near the river, and were selected on account of their adoption to agriculture and other purposes" (p. 124).

In this report is a considerable amount of commentary on the future surveys in Minnesota Territory. The country to the west of the Mississippi was very different from that of the east. Sargent writes, "West of the Mississippi River, the boundary between Iowa and Minnesota will form a base for the country north of it - a country as different from that lying to the east of the river as is possible to conceive. Whilst the latter is chiefly valuable for its pineries and lumbering facilities, the former, so far as is known, is chiefly valuable for its agricultural advantages" (p. 124).

He is adamantly opposed to the continued use of the fourth principal meridian as the reference line for the lands to the west. He argues, "the result of this course would be a tier of fractional townships on the south, rendering valueless as a base the boundary line recently run - a base which, for accuracy, must compare favorably with any heretofore established. As this is entirely a new field for operations, and as it is desirable to extend the surveys with the most utmost precision throughout this beautiful country, I feel unwilling to carry the errors of the survey on the eastern side into this work when it can so easily be avoided" (p. 124)

He proposes a sixth principal meridian running northwards from the Iowa/Minnesota border, between ranges 28 and 29, to intersect the Minnesota River at its junction with the Blue Earth River.

Sargent had been ordered to use the Oregon Manual of 1851 when instructing his deputies and this required changes in how surveys were carried out. Townships exteriors were to be controlled by guide meridians and standard parallels that were to be run before the exteriors, a very different practice from that followed by the previous surveys east of the Mississippi. The surveys east of the Mississippi River had used the east bank of the river to close the northern and western exterior lines of the townships bordering the river. By 1852, the surveys had progressed northwards to a point where the Mississippi was too small to require that it be meandered and thus was no longer a viable line for survey purposes. Sargent writes, "Thus far, the Mississippi has been considered a natural boundary; and as the land west of the main channel was, until very recently, in possession of the Indians, the surveys have heretofore been closed to the river; but as they are rapidly approaching a point where the river will cease to become a meandered stream, and the lands west of it now form a portion of the same territory" (p. 124).

Conclusion

The earliest surveys in Minnesota Territory, carried out under the direction of the Surveyor General of Wisconsin and Iowa, were restricted to the area between the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers that had been ceded in 1837. Even in this, relatively small area, townships were not subdivided in contiguous blocks. The progress of the survey was largely determined by the Surveyor General of Wisconsin and Iowa responding to demands for land from settlers already there and the desire to protect the timber.

Addendum

The unpublished correspondence between the Surveyor General and the various deputy surveyors contain a wealth of information that would grealty embellish this account. This correspondence, including the contracts and special instructions can be found in the various letterbooks of the Surveyor General of Wisconsin and Iowa, either in the Minnesota State Archives at the Minnesota History Center (see Dis-Closures, Summer 1991, 20) or in the Iowa State Archives in Des Moines (Squires, 1992b 20).

Rod Squires is an associate professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Minnesota. Born in 1945, he completed a B.A. in geography at Durham University in the United Kingdom in 1963 and a Ph.D. in geography at the same institution in 1970. He taught at the University of Winnipeg, Canada, before joining the faculty at the University of Minnesota in 1972. Originally teaching and carrying out research in the fields of biogeography (the geography of plants and animals) and paleoecology (the geography of old plants and animals), he now teaches undergraduate and graduate courses focussing on the influence of governments on landscapes, particularly through their control of land ownership and use. The main focus of his research is the development of the present land ownership patterns especially in Minnesota.
He is a technical member of MSPS (Chapter 6), and a member of the Association of American Geographers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Minnesota Historial Society, and the Ramsey County Historial Society.

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