Reports of Estimates and Appraisals of the Timber Commissioners Board, Minnesota, 1895-1905: Database Format

Dataset Identification:

Resource Abstract:
This database was created from surveys of state-owned timber conducted by the Minnesota Board of Timber Commissioners between 1895-1905. The surveys were conducted for a number of public land survey (PLS) sections scattered throughout the forested northern half of Minnesota, mostly comprising school, indemnity school and swamp lands. The paper records consist of approximately 2,500 pages, with plat maps and assessments indicating the extent, value and condition of timber resources for each section. Each page has a map of one PLS section accompanied by text answers to 13 standard questions about timber species, product volumes, access and susceptibility to fire. The surveyors were instructed to trace swamps, roads and lakes on the section map; occasionally, they also made supplemental text notes directly on the maps. In addition to information about tree species and volume, the surveyors often noted the location of cultural features such as sawmills. Some sections were resurveyed several times as different tree species became commercially important or as surveyors needed to assess damage from natural or human causes. The amount of detail and completeness varies from survey to survey since they were conducted by a number of people over a period of time. In addition, the resurveys often noted only what had changed and thus did not include a map or complete answers to the 13 questions. The information on the paper records has been captured in several digital formats: 1. non-georeferenced scans; 2. geo-referenced scans; 3. vector files of the polygons, lines and points on the maps; and 4. a database of the text information accompanying the maps. This metadata record applies to the database format.
Citation
Title Reports of Estimates and Appraisals of the Timber Commissioners Board, Minnesota, 1895-1905: Database Format
publication  Date   2001-06-01
cited responsible party - publisher
organisation Name  Minnesota Historical Society
Contact information
Address
, 
cited responsible party - originator
organisation Name  Minnesota Geospatial Information Office (MnGeo)
cited responsible party -
organisation Name  
Contact information
Linkage for online resource
URL: http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/gr00664.xml
Topic Category:  biota, Timber, Timberland, Lumber, Logs, Forest, Trees, Presettlement Vegetation, Historical Vegetation, Land Cover
purpose:
Purpose of the Original Surveys: The original paper surveys were undertaken to provide the Board of Timber Commissioners with information it needed to manage timber on state lands. The Board was created by the Minnesota state legislature in 1895 and was composed of the governor, the state auditor and state treasurer. Its overall charge was the care, conservation and sale of state timber. Most of this timber was situated on school, indemnity school and swamp lands. It accomplished these functions by issuing permits to cut timber on state lands, receiving settlements for other types of authorized timber cutting, determining and penalizing instances of illegal cutting (timber trespass), and coordinating with the Surveyor General of Logs and Lumber to appraise the logs actually harvested. The law required a current (within three years) estimate and appraisal of timber prior to the issuance of a cutting permit and specified the information that was to be recorded. Timber estimators were to personally enter their reports of these examinations into a book kept by the land commissioner, to be known as the record of appraisals and to constitute 'the original record of such examinations, estimates and appraisals.' These paper records reflect the difficulties government faced in the oversight of disparate and scattered parcels of land, as well as the haphazard nature of 19th century record keeping. Within that context, the Reports of Estimates and Appraisals of the Timber Commissioners Board represent the most coherent, accurate and broadest data set available. As such, they can serve as a benchmark against which to measure other collections. Ideally, as other data sets are identified and digitized, they can together establish a critical mass of information that will allow the comparative analysis of the environment in Minnesota across time, from the 1850s to the present. Purpose of the Digital Data The digital data sets were created in several formats in order to make the paper information accessible to a wide range of applications. The original non-georeferenced scans are available as records of exactly what the surveyor recorded and for use as illustration. The georeferenced scans can also be used as illustration or as a backdrop to other georeferenced data. The vector and database information can be used in geographic information systems, and the database information can also be analyzed with database or spreadsheet software. Historical timber information can be used to build an understanding of presettlement vegetation. The volumes of forest products, i.e., board feet, logs, post and ties, can provide valuable quantitative information. When this data is used with other sources, such as bearing trees, a picture of the landscape can emerge. In addition, this data provides information on infrastructure features such as houses, saw mills and roads.
Browse image (thumbnail):
thumbnail file name:  ...
file type: 
thumbnail file description:  Example of data input screen from Aitkin Co. T47N, R25W Sec. 36; also see another example at: ftp://ftp.lmic.state.mn.us/pub/data/phys_biol/landuse/mhs_timber/section_db.gif from St. Louis Co. T58N, R21W Sec. 36.
Resource language:  eng; USA
Resource progress code:  completed
Resource Maintenance Information
maintenance or update frequency:  notPlanned
Constraints on resource usage:
Constraints
Use limitation statement:
Check with the Minnesota Historical Society for their distribution liability policy http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/gr00664.xml
Constraints on resource usage:
Legal Constraints
use constraint:  otherRestrictions
Other constraints
Use Constraints: Redistribution Conditions: In obtaining this data, it is understood that you and/or your organization have the right to use it for any purpose. If you modify it, you are encouraged to apply responsible best practices by documenting those changes in a metadata record. If you transmit or provide the data to another user, it is your responsibility to provide appropriate content, limitation, warranty and liability information as you see fit.
Constraints on resource usage:
Legal Constraints
Access Constraints  otherRestrictions
Other constraints
Access Constraints: The original records (1.5 cubic feet) are held by the Minnesota Historical Society and are closed to general use.
Spatial representation type code: 
Processing environment:  Native Dataset Environment: Arc/Info, Version 8.0.2
Resource extent
Geographic Extent
Geographic Bounding Box
westBoundLongitude  -95.7
eastBoundLongitude  -89.9
northBoundLatitude  48.6
southBoundLatitude  45.9
Temporal Extent
1900-01-01
Additional information on resource:
The northeast forested area of MN. Counties containing at least one surveyed section: Aitkin, Becker, Beltrami, Carlton, Cass, Clearwater, Cook, Crow Wing, Hubbard, Itasca, Kanabec, Koochiching, Lake, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Pine, St. Louis, Todd and Wadena.
point of contact - pointOfContact
individual Name Norman Anderson
organisation Name  Minnesota Geospatial Information Office (MnGeo)
position Name Senior Research Analyst
Contact information
Telephone
Voice 651-201-2483
Address
658 Cedar Street, Room 300, St. Paul, MN, 55155
electronic Mail Address gisinfo.mngeo@state.mn.us
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Content information: feature catalog description

Included With Dataset  false
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Scope of quality information
scope level  dataset
Resource lineage description
source
source description  Source Contribution: Source Type
representative resolution scale:
Scale denominator: 13300
Resource extent
AbsoluteExternalPositionalAccuracy
name Of Measure Horizontal Positional Accuracy Report
evaluation Method Description  N/A
AbsoluteExternalPositionalAccuracy
name Of Measure Vertical Positional Accuracy Report
evaluation Method Description  Not applicable
Completeness Commission
evaluation Method Description  Sections surveyed early in the process of creating the report typically had the most features that were clearly identified. As the survey continued, less information was captured. Re-surveys were done when property conditions changed, for example, due to fire or logging; some sections were surveyed up to five times in the time period of the report. Re-surveys generally only noted what had changed and typically contained text information written in the map area, such as timber product volumes or land ownership, as well as varying amounts of text information from questions 1 - 13 on the report form.
Completeness Omission
evaluation Method Description  Sections surveyed early in the process of creating the report typically had the most features that were clearly identified. As the survey continued, less information was captured. Re-surveys were done when property conditions changed, for example, due to fire or logging; some sections were surveyed up to five times in the time period of the report. Re-surveys generally only noted what had changed and typically contained text information written in the map area, such as timber product volumes or land ownership, as well as varying amounts of text information from questions 1 - 13 on the report form.
ConceptualConsistency
measure Description  N/A

Resource distribution information

Distributor
distributor contact - distributor
individual Name Charles Rodgers
organisation Name  Minnesota Historical Society
position Name Government Records Specialist
Contact information
Telephone
Voice 651-259-3266
Fax 651-296-9961
Address
State Archives, St. Paul, MN, 55102-1906
electronic Mail Address charles.rodgers@mnhs.org
Standard ordering process
fees 
Ordering Instructions  Ordering Instructions: 1. Files are free online for download from the Minnesota Historical Society's website by clicking below on the 'I AGREE' link in the Online Linkage field. 2. A three CD set is available at no charge. Contact distributor.
Format
Format name Access (.mdb), Excel (.xls) and comma-delimited (.csv)
Format version 

Metadata data stamp:  2015-11-13
Resource Maintenance Information
maintenance or update frequency:  annually
notes: This metadata was automatically generated from the Minnesota Geographic Metadata Guidelines standard (version 1.2) using the 2012-06-20T17:21:00 version of the FGDC RSE to ISO 19115-2 transform.
Metadata contact - pointOfContact
individual Name Nancy Rader
organisation Name  Minnesota Geospatial Information Office (MnGeo)
position Name GIS Data Coordinator
Contact information
Telephone
Voice 651-201-2489
Fax 651-296-6398
Address
658 Cedar Street, Room 300, St. Paul, MN, 55155
electronic Mail Address gisinfo.mngeo@state.mn.us
Metadata scope code  dataset
Metadata language  eng; USA
Metadata character set encoding:   utf8
Metadata standard for this record:  ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data
standard version:  ISO 19115-2:2009(E)
Metadata record identifier:  5c3dd172-be43-432d-aac2-809b1ba85aa9

Metadata record format is ISO19139-2 XML (MI_Metadata)