Louise White, Partner, WhiteStar Corporation. Discusses the utility of Georeferenced source documents to validate lease polygons.

1. Using Authoritative Georeferenced
Digital GLO Plats with Any Vector
Grid Database for Lease Mapping
Louise White
Partner
WhiteStar Corp

2. Preview
• The need for mapping public lands
• Origin of the USPLSS
• Surveying Federal Land
• The original GIS – Plat maps
• Relevance of Historical Documents
• What has WhiteStar been up to
• Questions

3. Western Expansion…
1783 – Revolutionary war ends
1785 – Land Ordinance Act
1803 – Louisiana Purchase…
U.S. Doubled size in 20 years
Lots and lots of
Federal Land!

4. Survey before Sale…

5. Origin of the Public Land Survey
1785 – Land Ordinance Act
The Northwest Territory was to be
subdivided into "townships of six miles
square, by lines running due north and
south, and others crossing these at right
angles…”
Located at a point on the Ohio – Pennsylvania border
between East Liverpool, OH and Ohioville, PA

6. Origin of the Public Land Survey
• 6 X 6 Miles Square
• 1 Section = 640 Acres
• Lots: Corrections
along the North and
West sides

7. Origin of the Public Land Survey
Subsection: 40 Acre
Aliquot Parts

8. Example: Kansas
6th Principal Meridian
18S 7E Section 1

9. Example: Colorado
6th Principal Meridian
9S 89W Section 21

10. Example: Louisiana
Louisiana Meridian
3S 8E Section 24

11. Surveying Federal Land
• Cadastral Survey
– Creates, marks, defines, retraces or re-establishes
the boundaries and subdivisions of Federal Lands of
the United States
• Survey Plat
– The graphic drawing of the boundaries involved
with a particular survey project.
– Contains the official acreage to be used in the
legal description

12. Types of Surveys
• Original
– A cadastral survey which creates land boundaries
and marks them for the first time.
• Dependent Resurvey
– A resurvey for accomplishing a restoration based
on the original condition according to the records.
The dependent resurvey is made first by identifying
existing corners and other recognized and
acceptable points of control of the original survey
• Many additional survey types

13. GLO Survey Plat
Original Survey
Oklahoma
5N 4W
Indian Meridian
11/2/1871

14. 9N 4W Indian Meridian Sec 23
Original Survey: 11-2-1871

15. 9N 4W Indian Meridian Sec 23
Dependent Resurvey and Subdivision of
Sections: 4-12-2005

16. Why are GLO Plats Relevant?
• GLO Survey Plats provide the official acreage
for legal descriptions…
• Section subdivisions matter and they are not
all the same size
• Regardless of the source PLS, you can load
the Historical Source Documents in your GIS
system and glean valuable information

17. WhiteStar Plats
• Locate the survey plats
• Georeference
• Logical naming convention

18. Example: Arkansas
10S 25W 5th Principal Meridian
Original Survey
Never Approved
Started January 1819
• PLSS Survey
• Georeferenced
Plat Image

19. Example: Arkansas
10S 25W 5th Principal Meridian
Subdivision of
Sections Survey
Approved: 8/16/1836

20. Example: Arkansas
10S 25W 5th Principal Meridian
Other Survey
Approved: 6/24/1858

21. WhiteStar Plats
• Coverage Increasing
• Oklahoma Complete
• On Deck:
• Arkansas
• California
• Michigan
• Alabama
• Florida

22. WhiteStar Plats - Delivery
• WhiteStar Cloud
• ArcGIS Pro Application
• Streaming

23. Summary
• The need for mapping public lands
• Origin of the USPLSS
• Surveying Federal Land
• The original GIS – Plat maps
• Relevance of Historical Documents
• What has WhiteStar been up to

24. Questions?
www.whitestar.com
lwhite@whitestar.com