News Release 407

LEGAL BOUNDARY BETWEEN
RAY AND LAFAYETTE COUNTIES DETERMINED

County Commissioners Sign Land Plats

Volume 35-407

Contact: Hylan Beydler

(For immediate release)

573-368-2118

ROLLA, MO, SEPT. 19, 2007 -- After years of uncertainty and pending litigation, the legal position for the boundary between Ray and Lafayette counties at the Camden Bend on the Missouri River has been determined. County commissioners from Ray and Lafayette counties met with State Land Surveyor Mike Flowers, Department of Natural Resources' Division of Geology and Land Survey, at the Lexington County Courthouse Monday, Sept. 17, to put the final touches on the surveying project. The elected officials signed land plats that depict the legal boundary between the two counties.

The commissioners affirmed the results of a boundary survey completed this year. The survey was completed under a contract with Lafayette County Surveyors Terry McCanless, Ray County and Mark Nolte. "The survey will serve as the basis for editing the tax maps of both counties. It will also fix the locations of any property boundaries described in legal descriptions by local landowners along the old channel of the Missouri River after the avulsive cutoff caused by the flood in 1915," said Flowers.

Flooding of the river caused the avulsion. This abrupt change in the course of the river was the result of a period of showers, many of them quite heavy, beginning in May of that year. According to the Weather Bureau in Washington, D.C., "A period of wet weather of far-reaching effect began in the middle Missouri Valley about May 18, 1915. The rains of May 26-27-28 brought about the expected, and the Missouri River at Kansas City passed above the flood stage (22 feet) on May 28 and continued above until the end of the month."

The department's State Land Surveyor office is responsible for developing the specifications for the survey and for selecting a contractor. The program has the responsibility of maintaining the U.S. Public Land Survey System in Missouri. This system serves as the foundation for all land titles in Missouri and provides the framework for establishing property boundaries and land boundary corners.

Flowers thanked the county surveyors and the commissioners for their work and cooperation. Ray County Surveyor Terry McCanless said, "We worked painstakingly last fall to recover the monuments from the 1922 survey. Some were buried four feet deep." Gil Rector, Lafayette County commissioner, agreed saying, "The fact that numerous stone markers were found is amazing." The county commissioners and surveyors expressed appreciation for the assistance provided by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

Since the mid 1970s, more than 7,000 new markers have been replaced or reestablished by the various county surveyors with funds provided by the Department of Natural Resources. This ongoing effort aids landowners, surveyors and mappers by providing land boundary information that facilitates the accurate determination of property ownership.

Visitors to the department's Web site are now able to perform a number of searches from their home computers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on the vast holdings at the state's Land Survey Repository. Searches on the Land Survey Index include legal descriptions (township, range and section), subdivision plats, U.S. survey number, General Land Office plats and field notes by township, surveyor name or number and City of St. Louis city blocks and roads. Additional information about the department's Land Survey Program may be found on the Web at www.dnr.mo.gov/geology/landsurvey/.

For news releases, visit www.dnr.mo.gov/newsrel.

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Editor: Photo available at /newsrel/raylafayette.jpg.
Cutline: Signing the land plat in Lafayette County Clerk Linda Niedick's office. In the foreground (left to right) are: Gil Rector, Northern District commissioner, Lafayette County; Harland Miesner, Southern District commissioner, Lafayette County; Mark Nolte, Lafayette County surveyor. Back row: Jeff Adams, presiding commissioner, Ray County; Bill Meyer, prior Lafayette County surveyor; Terry McCanless, Ray County surveyor; Darrell Pratte, land surveyor, Department of Natural Resources; and Mike Flowers, State Land surveyor, Department of Natural Resources.