News Release 489

AUDRAIN, BOONE AND OSAGE COUNTIES ENTER INTO SURVEY
MONUMENT RESTORATION CONTRACT WITH
DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

Volume 35-489

Contact: Hylan Beydler

(For immediate release)

573-368-2118

ROLLA, MO, DEC. 19, 2007 -- The Missouri Department of Natural Resources recently entered into contracts with Andrew, Atchison, Harrison and Henry County Commissioners and their respective county surveyors to help restore land survey monuments. The following county surveyors and commissions are under contract to restore land corner monuments of the U.S. Public Land Survey System with the department's Land Survey Program: Don Borman, Audrain County; Robert Walker, Boone County; and Ralph Kliethermes, Osage County.

The department's Land Survey Program in Rolla has the responsibility for maintaining the land survey system in the State of Missouri. "This system serves as the foundation for all land titles in the state and provides the framework for establishing property boundaries and land boundary corners," said Mimi Garstang, state geologist and Division of Geology and Land Survey director. "We are pleased to be able to work cooperatively with county governments across Missouri each year to accomplish our goals and to maintain our state's survey monuments."

The Land Survey Program was created in 1969 when the Missouri General Assembly realized that more than 90 percent of the original survey markers in our state had been destroyed or obliterated. This situation created major problems with property boundary decisions. The original markers were established in Missouri between 1815 and 1855, and many had been lost through time. Since the mid 1970s, more than 8,000 new markers have been replaced or re-established by the county surveyors with funds provided by the various county commissions and the Department of Natural Resources. This ongoing effort will aid landowners, surveyors and cartographers by providing land boundary information that will facilitate the accurate determination of property ownership. This program is extremely valuable to all Missouri citizens.

Visitors to the program'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. Citizens are encouraged to check out the new service at www.dnr.mo.gov/molandsurveyindex/.

Additional information about the department's Land Survey Program is on the Web at www.dnr.mo.gov/geology/landsurvey/. 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.

###