News Release No. 492

DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES SURVEY DOCUMENTS
CLARIFY STE. GENEVIEVE-ST. FRANCOIS COUNTY LINE

Survey Results Submitted to Secretary of State

Volume 33-492

Contact: Mike Flowers

(For immediate release)

573-368-2300

JEFFERSON CITY, DEC. 6, 2005- The Missouri Department of Natural Resources' Division of Geology and Land Survey (DGLS) delivered a number of significant maps and land surveys to Secretary of State Robin Carnahan. These included boundaries between St. Francois and Ste. Genevieve counties and Platte and Buchanan counties, and the official state boundaries between Missouri and Iowa, portions of Missouri and Arkansas, and the Tri-State intersection of Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma.

These documents will be placed in the rare documents vault along with other fundamental Missouri documents, such as the Missouri Constitution, original land surveys, all bills passed by the state legislature and other foundational documents. Each of these documents are historically significant because they define the statutory location for our state and county boundaries.

In southeast Missouri, DGLS contracted Ste. Genevieve County Surveyor Gerald Bader, PLS, and St. Francois County Surveyor Terry Effan, PLS, to re-survey approximately 22 miles of the boundary between Ste. Genevieve and St. Francois counties. The boundary had been a source of concern for years, however unlike most city borders, it did not follow, nor was it consistent with the lines of the U.S. Public Land Survey System. It is, in fact, a diagonal line.

The re-survey entailed significant research to locate the positions of two monuments (markers) at each end of the 22 mile segment and several ancient monuments along the line marked by previous county surveyors in the earlier 1925-1926 survey. In what turned out to be an exception-to-the-rule, statutes were rewritten to acknowledge the boundary as surveyed in the 1925-1926 survey. The statute change was required in order to allow a re-survey to be made.

Land survey records have played an important role in the economic growth of Missouri, though many are unfamiliar with their history or significance. "County boundaries were modified and re-surveyed during the early history of our state. The location of land boundaries define land ownership and political subdivisions such as cities or counties," according to State Land Surveyor Mike Flowers. "These maps and surveys provide for the permanent marking and delineation of those common boundaries between our neighboring states and counties."

The Land Survey Program develops and provides information required for the accurate and economical location of property boundaries throughout Missouri. Maintaining consistent and dependable land boundary information avoids boundary disputes and errors in land transfers. This often involves the reestablishment of old markers, referred to as monuments, originally established for the U.S. Public Land Survey System (USPLSS). These monuments locate the boundaries of land surveys dating as far back as the early 1800s.

The USPLSS in Missouri, is an extension of the system adopted by the U.S. Congress in 1785. Between 1816 and 1855, Missouri was surveyed into one mile squares called sections. Thirty-six sections in a block of land measuring six miles on each side is called a township. These surveys created the basis for the transfer of land from the U.S. government to private owners and are the basis for all land transfers and ownership in the state today. Technology, through the global positioning system (GPS), has enhanced the ability to locate and remark these monuments, thereby assuring their accuracy and permanence.

To learn more about land surveying of yesterday and today, visit the Land Survey Program's Web pages at: www.dnr.mo.gov/geology/. For information on specific maps or surveys delivered to the secretary of state, contact Mike Flowers at 573-368-2301.

For news releases on the Web, visit www.dnr.mo.gov/newsrel. For a complete listing of the department's upcoming meetings, hearings and events, visit the department's online calendar at www.dnr.mo.gov/calendar/search.do.

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NOTE TO EDITOR: A photo including the participants from this event is available online at /newsrel/LSP_11-22-05.jpg. The cutline for the photo: PHOTO L to R: Mike Flowers, Land Survey Program Director and State Land Surveyor; Mimi Garstang, Director of DNR's Division of Geology and Land Survey and State Geologist (DGLS); Darrell Pratte, PLS, DGLS Land Survey Section Chief; Robin Carnahan, Secretary of State; John Read, PLS, Stone County Surveyor and President of Missouri Association of County Surveyors; Troy Hayes, PLS, Nodaway and Buchanan Counties Surveyor; Dan Lashley, PLS, DGLS Land Survey Section Chief. Photo courtesy: Krista S. Myers, Secretary of State's Office.