Public Land Survey Records

Original Field Notes and Plat Maps

1800's survey notebook with a town maps in the background that was produced from the survey notes.

The field notes and plat maps of the public land survey of Wisconsin are a valuable resource for original land survey information, as well as for understanding Wisconsin's landscape history. The survey of Wisconsin was conducted between 1832 and 1866 by the federal General Land Office. This work established the township, range and section grid; the pattern upon which land ownership and land use is based. The survey records were transferred to the Wisconsin Board of Commissioners of Public Lands after the original survey was completed. Since that time, these records have been available for consultation at the BCPL's office in Madison, as hand-transcriptions, and more recently on microfilm. Now, they are available via the internet as electronic images at UW Madison Digital Collections

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UW Madison Digital Collections

Before beginning a search for survey records, users, especially those who have not used this site previously, are strongly encouraged to read the background material on Land Surveys. This information has been developed to assist in understanding, the process of the public land survey and how to interpret the records, as well as to understand the search techniques for this site.

Much of the credit for this project is due to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, General Library System. This organization did the original imaging of the field notes, as well as the developing and hosting of the search website and images.

Search the New Online Archive (UW Madison)

Development continues on a mapping tool to complement the new search interface. In the meantime, BCPL has created a simple mapping application to help users who prefer to initiate searching using a map.

Launch a Search by Map

Links to other Land Record related sites.

Tips for Searching

The first step in searching the collection is to specify a township and range that includes your area of interest. This should be done using township and range numbers and directions. Abbreviations can be used as well. Search is not case-sensitive. Valid examples include:

Township 7 North Range 8 East
township 7 north range 8 east
t27nr04e
T09NR04W - note: leading zeroes are required in this format
t09Nr04W - note: leading zeroes are required in this format

A valid search will return thumbnail images and descriptions of maps and survey notes that are available for that township. Clicking on one of the results will take you to a different view depending on whether a map or notebook was chosen. Within the map interface or the notebook selections, you can get details for a more precise location within the township.

An alternative search for maps in the collection is at the Wisconsin State Cartographer's Office at GeoData@Wisconsin

. Searching for a township here still requires leading zeroes for township and range numbers, but direction ("north", "west", or "east") and "township" and "range" can be fully spelled out as well. Examples:

township 38 north range 07 east
t27nr24e

New Images are Now Available!

BCPL has worked with UW Digital Collections to rescan all plat maps and survey notebook at a higher resolution with significantly improved image quality. The rescanned images have been released with a new search interfacethat.

Original Scan:

New Scan:

The field notes and plat maps of the original Public Land Survey of Wisconsin are public records under the custody of the Wisconsin Board of Commissioners of Public Lands. The images of these survey records are provided through this website for informational purposes only. Certified copies for legal purposes of any of these records may be obtained from the Wisconsin Board of Commissioners of Public Lands.

These images may be copied by individuals or organizations for personal use, research or other purposes defined as "fair use" under applicable copyright laws. Anyone interested in making further use of these images or records, including commercial use, should contact the Wisconsin Board of Commissioners of Public Lands for permission.

This website may be linked to other non-commercial, non-subscription websites created for educational and/or research purposes. Anyone creating such a link is asked to inform the Wisconsin Board of Commissioners of Public Lands at thuy.nguyen@wisconsin.gov

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Online Archive Credits

Content owner and sponsor

Wisconsin Board of Commissioners of Public Lands

Digitization, Technical Design, and Hosting
UW Digital Collections Center External link icon indicating link will open an external website in a new tab

Township boundary data
Ted Sickley, UW Department of Forest Ecology and Management

Image map creation
Land Information and Computer Graphics Facility, UW-Madison