U.s. General Land Office Survey Disc

[AKBessy]

We have a U.S. General Land Office Survey disc on one corner of our property. I was thinking I would try to research it and started to, but I don't know what I am doing!

 

Here's the information on the disc:

U.S. General Land Office Survey-1935

Penalty $250 for removal

In the center of the disc are some letters and numbers with a line down the center of the disc and a "C" at each end of the line (like the Center line). The numbers on the left side of the center line say "S 1/16" and on the right of the center line it says "S 8".

 

 

I think the history of this disc is that in the early 1930's, the Government brought farmers up to Matanuska Valley in Alaska from the lower 48 states to try farming up here and gave them parcels of land. I believe that this disc is a marker used to section the original parcels in this area.

 

Can anyone help me get started in the right direction?

[CallawayMT]

We have a U.S. General Land Office Survey disc on one corner of our property. I was thinking I would try to research it and started to, but I don't know what I am doing!

 

Here's the information on the disc:

U.S. General Land Office Survey-1935

Penalty $250 for removal

In the center of the disc are some letters and numbers with a line down the center of the disc and a "C" at each end of the line (like the Center line). The numbers on the left side of the center line say "S 1/16" and on the right of the center line it says "S 8".

 

 

I think the history of this disc is that in the early 1930's, the Government brought farmers up to Matanuska Valley in Alaska from the lower 48 states to try farming up here and gave them parcels of land. I believe that this disc is a marker used to section the original parcels in this area.

 

Can anyone help me get started in the right direction?

 

AKBessy,

 

There are a few more pieces of information that you will need. The corner that you have is the Center-South 1/16th corner of Section 8; but you need to know what Township and Range that you are located in. Up in Alaska you will also need the Meridian that you are located in, as there are multiple meridians in Alaska.

 

You are lucky, because I believe that you live near Anchorage and that is where all the records are located for Alaska. You need to go to the BLM office, or you can give them a call and ask for the Records Room. They can help you figure out where exactly you are located and then they can make copies for all of the original records for your property, for a nominal fee.

 

Here is a link to their web page for numbers and addresses:BLM Alaska

 

If you can give a good description of where your land is located, there are actually records online that you can get to; which are located on the AK DNR website. Alaska DNR

 

Holler if you need help.

 

Good luck,

CallawayMT

Edited March 26, 2006 by CallawayMT

[Z15]

fyi

 

[+Intermountain Angler]

AK,

if this is your property you should have a legal description of your parcel included in the deed. at least we did when i lived in Talkeetna, from this it will give your meridian, township etc. clear down to the disk you have found.

[AKBessy]

I actually do have the legal description for the property. I felt funny posting the information on the web since it is on my property . However, I suppose that since I let the cat out of the bag, and if I log somewhere that I found this one -- at least several people will know.

 

I like the sheet showing the breakdown of the survey - thanks for sharing it Z15. I will go check out the AK DNR site CallawayMT, thanks for sharing the link.

 

My final question for today is: Is this disc considered a benchmark?

 

I am still trying to learn to use a gps and stumbled across this website from the geocaching site. I sure appreciate the help and will do some more cruising through the sites to learn more about using a gps and the fun things to do with it (all the while learning great skills to help me navigate through the wilderness!).

Edited March 27, 2006 by AKBessy

[+NorthWes]

Sorry to say that the Matanuska Colony land sale survey marks weren't all recorded in the database we use on geocaching.com... In fact, most of the original railroad land surveys (versus the later right of way surveys) aren't in the database either. Still, they're pretty cool to find, as they document the history of land transfer from the federal government into state and federal hands. Good luck with the BLM lands office and hunting the records - I'm due to look for Talkeetna-area records from the 1913-1943 period there myself.

[+Shorelander]

On the other hand, the mark is definitely a disk used for horizontal control of some sort, and as such, could be inputted to the "Recovered US Benchmarks" category on Waymarking.com, run by Black Dog Trackers. Whether you want to or not is your decision.

[AKBessy]

I had a feeling that I might have to do some digging to find records for this. I know that the more familiar I become with these finds and their related documents, the better I'll be able to pinpoint; so, here's a good start .

 

The recovered US benchmarks would be a good idea if I can't find anything.

 

Thanks for the help and happy hunting everyone .