Dataset Identification:
Resource Abstract:
- description: Minnesota's original public land survey plat maps were created between 1848 and 1907 during the first government
land survey of the state by the U.S. Surveyor General's Office. This collection of more than 3,600 maps includes later
General Land Office (GLO) and Bureau of Land Management maps up through 2001. Scanned images of the maps are available in
several digital formats and most have been georeferenced. The survey plat maps, and the accompanying survey field notes, serve
as the fundamental legal records for real estate in Minnesota; all property titles and descriptions stem from them. They also
are an essential resource for surveyors and provide a record of the state's physical geography prior to European settlement.
Finally, they testify to many years of hard work by the surveying community, often under very challenging conditions. The
deteriorating physical condition of the older maps (drawn on paper, linen, and other similar materials) and the need to provide
wider public access to the maps, made handling the original records increasingly impractical. To meet this challenge, the
Office of the Secretary of State (SOS), the State Archives of the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS), the Minnesota Department
of Transportation (MnDOT), MnGeo (formerly the Land Management Information Center - LMIC) and the Minnesota Association of
County Surveyors collaborated in a digitization project which produced high quality (800 dpi), 24-bit color images of the
maps in standard TIFF, JPEG and PDF formats - nearly 1.5 terabytes of data. Funding was provided by MnDOT. In 2010-11, most
of the JPEG plat map images were georeferenced. The intent was to locate the plat images to coincide with statewide geographic
data without appreciably altering (warping) the image. This increases the value of the images in mapping software where they
can be used as a background layer.; abstract: Minnesota's original public land survey plat maps were created between
1848 and 1907 during the first government land survey of the state by the U.S. Surveyor General's Office. This collection
of more than 3,600 maps includes later General Land Office (GLO) and Bureau of Land Management maps up through 2001. Scanned
images of the maps are available in several digital formats and most have been georeferenced. The survey plat maps, and the
accompanying survey field notes, serve as the fundamental legal records for real estate in Minnesota; all property titles
and descriptions stem from them. They also are an essential resource for surveyors and provide a record of the state's
physical geography prior to European settlement. Finally, they testify to many years of hard work by the surveying community,
often under very challenging conditions. The deteriorating physical condition of the older maps (drawn on paper, linen, and
other similar materials) and the need to provide wider public access to the maps, made handling the original records increasingly
impractical. To meet this challenge, the Office of the Secretary of State (SOS), the State Archives of the Minnesota Historical
Society (MHS), the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), MnGeo (formerly the Land Management Information Center
- LMIC) and the Minnesota Association of County Surveyors collaborated in a digitization project which produced high quality
(800 dpi), 24-bit color images of the maps in standard TIFF, JPEG and PDF formats - nearly 1.5 terabytes of data. Funding
was provided by MnDOT. In 2010-11, most of the JPEG plat map images were georeferenced. The intent was to locate the plat
images to coincide with statewide geographic data without appreciably altering (warping) the image. This increases the value
of the images in mapping software where they can be used as a background layer.
Citation
- Title Minnesota Original Public Land Survey Plat Maps, Digital Images, Geo-referenced.
-
- creation Date
2015-04-09T23:46:26.822151
Resource language:
Processing environment:
Back to top:
Digital Transfer Options
-
- Linkage for online resource
-
- name Dublin Core references URL
- URL: http://www.mngeo.state.mn.us/glo
- protocol WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
- link function information
- Description URL provided in Dublin Core references element.
Metadata data stamp:
2018-08-06T22:22:32Z
Resource Maintenance Information
- maintenance or update frequency:
- notes: This metadata record was generated by an xslt transformation from a dc metadata record; Transform by Stephen M. Richard, based
on a transform by Damian Ulbricht. Run on 2018-08-06T22:22:32Z
Metadata contact
-
pointOfContact
- organisation Name
CINERGI Metadata catalog
-
- Contact information
-
-
- Address
-
- electronic Mail Address cinergi@sdsc.edu
Metadata language
eng
Metadata character set encoding:
utf8
Metadata standard for this record:
ISO 19139 Geographic Information - Metadata - Implementation Specification
standard version:
2007
Metadata record identifier:
urn:dciso:metadataabout:da6e2d8d-9f5c-4e46-ae8e-1f35e5dabafa
Metadata record format is ISO19139 XML (MD_Metadata)