Nevada State Lands Office Survey Maps
1861-1929 229 sheets
An important responsibility of the U.S. Surveyor General was conducting surveys and compiling maps of lands in new territories and states. Contracts were let to several dozen surveyors to map out the territory and state of Nevada beginning in 1861. Copies of the resultant maps were deposited with the Nevada State Surveyor General's office. These maps contain information about the geographic and cultural features of each township and range: roads; railroads; buildings; water features such as rivers, lakes, creeks, canals, ditches, swamp and overflowed lands, and reservoirs; and lands claimed by patents. The surveyors were specifically charged with mapping features that crossed township and range boundary lines.
As patents were issued for state lands, the State Surveyor General's office penciled in parcel divisions and patent numbers. Eventually some of the maps became so full of information that they were superseded by fresh maps. The Nevada State Land Office, which resumed responsibilities of the State Surveyor General in 1957, transferred some of the original maps to the Nevada State Archives at that point. These maps date from 1861-1929; the bulk date from 1861-1880 and consist of 229 sheets arranged first by range number and then by township. Maps not transferred to the State Archives remain with the State Lands Office.
An inventory of the maps is available online. The inventory is arranged first by county name, then township and range. Some maps show no names of geographic features and as a result, no place names are mentioned in the inventory for those plats. Identification of counties using townships and ranges was made using the Nevada Bureau of Mines GEOINDEX, available online at http://mapserver3.library.unr.edu/website/nv_geoindex/viewer.htm.
A list of Land Office contract surveyors responsible for creating these maps is also available.
Finding Maps
For Carson County, see Ormsby County
|
