The small building at the left of the image served as the Land Office for Wisconsin Territory, starting in 1834. According to notes in the "Maps and Atlases Collection" section of the Wisconsin Historical Society website "The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 included provisions for surveying and selling United States public lands. The US General Office was established in 1812 to carry out these responsibilities. Under the supervision of a Surveyor-General, teams of surveyors traversed the land, dividing it into six mile squares called towns and subdividing these towns into 36 mile-square sections of 640 acres. The surveyors transcribed their survey notes into small notebooks which included information on the quality of the land, the nature of the vegetation and the topography, including swamps, rapids, bluffs, and signs of human habitation such as trails, Indian villages, mines and cultivated fields. The survey of Wisconsin took place between 1832 and 1866. The completed notebooks for Wisconsin surveys were taken to regional Surveyor General's offices in St. Louis or Dubuque where clerks and draftsmen transcribed them into maps called survey plats for every town. One copy of each map was sent to Washington, one kept at the regional office, and one sent to the local land office. The local land offices were the focus of the entire system, as this was where settlers and speculators came to choose and buy land. The survey plats provided vital information that helped buyers make their purchases. The first local land offices in Wisconsin were established at Mineral Point and Green Bay in 1834."
Community
Mineral Point;
County
Iowa County;
State
Wisconsin;
LCTGM Subject
Surveying;fences
Subject
Vernacular Architecture;
Category
High Street Buildings;
Submitting Institution
Mineral Point Historical Society;
Collection
Glass Plate Negative Collection;
Copyright and Use Statement
Copyright to this resource is held by the Mineral Point Historical Society and is provided here for educational purposes only. Commercial use or distribution of the image or content is not permitted without prior permission of the Mineral Point Historical Society. Please contact the Mineral Point Historical Society at MPHS@mineralpointhistory.org for permission to use the digital image or content.
