News Release No. 493

DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES CLARIFIES MISSOURI-ARKANSAS BORDER IN SURVEY DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED TO SECRETARY OF STATE

Volume 33-493

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 have delivered a number of significant maps and land surveys to Secretary of State Robin Carnahan. These included official state boundaries between Missouri and Iowa, portions of Missouri and Arkansas, and the Tri-State intersection of Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. Boundaries between the Missouri counties of Platte and Buchanan and St. Francois and Ste. Genevieve, were also included.

These documents will be placed in the rare documents vault along with other fundamental Missouri state 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 southwest Missouri, the Division of Geology and Land Survey (DGLS) was contacted by the Missouri Department of Transportation and the county surveyors from Barry and McDonald counties, with a request for a re-survey of a section of the Missouri and Arkansas state line. Upon evaluation, DGLS determined it necessary to re-survey the boundary beginning at the far southwest corner of the state and extending east to the community of Seligman in Barry County. Portions of this re-survey were instrumental in determining the state boundary near the intersection of Route 71 as it crosses into Arkansas, north of Bella Vista Arkansas. The project has also helped resolve several private landowner disputes concerning the exact location of the Missouri and Arkansas state line.

In another southwest Missouri project, a re-survey of the Tri-State Corner came about as a team effort initiated by past presidents, Gerald Bader along with Sam Orr, and the current president, John Read, of the Missouri Association of County Surveyors (MACS) who is also the Stone County Surveyor. The project, selected by the MACS in cooperation with DGLS, is a means of highlighting the importance of land surveying in Missouri.

The exact location at which the states of Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma converge, is referred to as the Tri-State Corner. The location was first established on May 29, 1857, and resurveyed in 1915, when road construction threatened the marker. In 1935, the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, re-surveyed the location in reference to their new state-of-the-art triangulation station called "SEKAN" and a concrete monument was erected on the site. With time, the marker disappeared and no accurate marker pinpointed this three-state intersection.

The current re-survey, performed as a community service by MACS and DGLS, has relocated the exact Tri-State Corner and placed a 32 inch square by 3 inch thick slab of Carthage Marble monument on the site. Read, the Stone County Surveyor, designed the three state design used on the monument. A stone monolith built by a Depression-Era Youth Corps stands approximately 50 feet west of the actual corner and serves as a nostalgic reminder of surveys of yesteryear.

The resulting documents have now been filed in all three states. The official plat survey has received the seals and signatures of the Missouri land surveyors who have played a prominent role in the gathering of data, placement of the monument, or monetary donations toward this community project. Now filed with the Missouri Secretary of State's office, these documents will be archived for posterity as a permanent record.

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

The DGLS' 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 United States 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.

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 www.dnr.mo.gov/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.