News Release 505

MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
ENTERS INTO SURVEY MONUMENT RESTORATION CONTRACT
WITH LACLEDE COUNTY

Volume 35-505

Contact: Hylan Beydler

(For immediate release)

573-368-2118

ROLLA, MO, OCT. 31, 2007 -- The Missouri Department of Natural Resources' Division of Geology and Land Survey recently entered into a contract with the Laclede County Commission and Bob Shotts, Laclede County Surveyor to help restore 20 land survey monuments in Laclede County.

The department's Land Survey Program in Rolla has the responsibility for maintaining the U.S. Public Land Survey System in 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 director of the Division of Geology and Land Survey. "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 the 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 reestablished 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," Garstang said. "This program is extremely valuable to all Missouri citizens."

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. 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.

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