Principal Investigator(s):
Roderick Squires, Former Associate Professor, Geography
Project summary:
The purpose of this project is to provide a description and inventory of Deputy Surveyors' contracts in Minnesota. Since these contracts are the first records created in the public land surveying process, these documents are especially valuable for anyone interested in how the federal government divided the land surface in Minnesota. Every individual employed as a deputy surveyor in Minnesota was awarded a contract, either by the Surveyor General of Wisconsin and Iowa (1847-1857), or by the Surveyor General of Minnesota (1857-1908). Each contract specified what was to be surveyed, when the work was to be completed, and the compensation the government would pay.
This research project catalogs and describes those contracts awarded to individuals to carry out the public land surveys in Minnesota currently stored in the Minnesota History Center.