General Land Office Township Plats Georeferenced

File Geodatabase Feature Class

Tags
boundaries, location, Townships, Ranges, Arkansas


Summary

Spatially link General Land Office Township plat images to their relative location on earth to display townships and various natural and cultural entities in Arkansas as they were mapped in the 1800s.

Description
			Through geographic information systems (GIS) research and development, we have spatially geo-referenced and mosaiced scanned images of the original plats for the state of Arkansas to a common coordinate system, being Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) and datum, being North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83). A total of 1716 plat images were spatially referenced using township and section corners. In addition to providing these geo-referenced images in a database, we also defined the township extents and clipped the excess overlapping edges of paper, referred to as “collars”. We were able to mosaic these together to provide county and state wide images. This dataset provides 1700+ individual township plats "collar" on and off, a state wide mosaic, and mosaics displaying the 75 counties in Arkansas. The product from this project is intended to serve as a valuable research tool for surveyors, natural resource professionals, historians, and the general public.
            
			
Credits

This work was performed by John Tyler Post at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. This project was a joint effort between the Arkansas Commissioner of State Lands, the Arkansas Geographic Information Office, and the School of Forest Resources, University of Arkansas, Monticello.

Use limitations

            
We do not guarantee the location accuracy of this dataset. When utilizing the products from this project, the accuracy and other limitations of the two PLSS shape files that were used to spatially reference the plat images need to be taken into account. The plat maps were hand drawn in the 1800s using field notes from surveyors using compass and chain. The plats are almost 200 years old and were scanned to produce an electronic record. This process could have also introduced error. These images were then brought into GIS software where they were warped and transformed to fit onto a Cartesian coordinate system. The measurements found in the original surveyors' field notes take precedence over plat drawings. Users need to keep in mind that any location error that occurred at any stage was compounded throughout this process. This product should not be used to legally define property or any other critical decision making process.Federal and State Law prohibits the looting of archeological sites. This GIS product should not be used for such activity. If anyone is to find anything of archeological significance, they should contact their local archeologist.

Extent

West  -95.618368    East  -89.619987
North  37.531952    South  32.969256

Scale Range
Maximum (zoomed in)  1:5,000
Minimum (zoomed out)  1:150,000,000

ArcGIS Metadata 

Topics and Keywords 

*Content type  Downloadable Data
Export to FGDC CSDGM XML format as Resource Description No

Citation 

Title General Land Office Township Plats Georeferenced


Presentation formats* digital map


Citation Contacts 

Responsible party
Individual's name Robert E Kissell, Jr.
Organization's name University of Arkansas at Monticello
Contact's position Associate Professor
Contact's role  point of contact


Contact information
Phone
Voice 870-460-1192

Address
Type
City Monticello
Administrative area Ar
Postal code 71656
Country US



Resource Details 

Dataset languages* English (UNITED STATES)
Dataset character set  utf8 - 8 bit UCS Transfer Format


Spatial representation type* vector


*Processing environment  Version 6.2 (Build 9200) ; Esri ArcGIS 10.5.0.6491


Credits
This work was performed by John Tyler Post at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. This project was a joint effort between the Arkansas Commissioner of State Lands, the Arkansas Geographic Information Office, and the School of Forest Resources, University of Arkansas, Monticello.

ArcGIS item properties
*Name
*Location file://\\WIN-NVCM7MBNNV5\C$\Users\Administrator\Documents\ArcGIS\Default.gdb
*Access protocol Local Area Network

Extents 

Extent
Geographic extent
Bounding rectangle
Extent type  Extent used for searching
West longitude -95.618368
*East longitude -89.619987
North latitude 37.531952
*South latitude 32.969256
*Extent contains the resource Yes

Extent in the item's coordinate system
*West longitude 355100.059400
*East longitude 802811.974200
*South latitude 3652540.477300
*North latitude 4042952.367300
*Extent contains the resource Yes

Resource Points of Contact 

Point of contact
Individual's name Robert E Kissell, Jr.
Organization's name University of Arkansas at Monticello
Contact's position Associate Professor
Contact's role  point of contact


Contact information
Phone
Voice 870-460-1192

Address
Type
City Monticello
Administrative area Ar
Postal code 71656
Country US



Resource Maintenance 

Resource maintenance
Update frequency  irregular


Resource Constraints 

Constraints
Limitations of use
                  

We do not guarantee the location accuracy of this dataset. When utilizing the products from this project, the accuracy and other limitations of the two PLSS shape files that were used to spatially reference the plat images need to be taken into account. The plat maps were hand drawn in the 1800s using field notes from surveyors using compass and chain. The plats are almost 200 years old and were scanned to produce an electronic record. This process could have also introduced error. These images were then brought into GIS software where they were warped and transformed to fit onto a Cartesian coordinate system. The measurements found in the original surveyors' field notes take precedence over plat drawings. Users need to keep in mind that any location error that occurred at any stage was compounded throughout this process. This product should not be used to legally define property or any other critical decision making process.Federal and State Law prohibits the looting of archeological sites. This GIS product should not be used for such activity. If anyone is to find anything of archeological significance, they should contact their local archeologist.


Spatial Reference 

ArcGIS coordinate system
*Type Projected
*Geographic coordinate reference GCS_North_American_1983
*Projection NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_15N
*Coordinate reference details
Projected coordinate system
Well-known identifier 26915
X origin -5120900
Y origin -9998100
XY scale 10000
Z origin 0
Z scale 1
M origin 0
M scale 1
XY tolerance 0.001
Z tolerance 0.001
M tolerance 0.001
High precision true
Latest well-known identifier 26915
Well-known text PROJCS["NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_15N",GEOGCS["GCS_North_American_1983",DATUM["D_North_American_1983",SPHEROID["GRS_1980",6378137.0,298.257222101]],PRIMEM["Greenwich",0.0],UNIT["Degree",0.0174532925199433]],PROJECTION["Transverse_Mercator"],PARAMETER["False_Easting",500000.0],PARAMETER["False_Northing",0.0],PARAMETER["Central_Meridian",-93.0],PARAMETER["Scale_Factor",0.9996],PARAMETER["Latitude_Of_Origin",0.0],UNIT["Meter",1.0],AUTHORITY["EPSG",26915]]

Reference system identifier
*Value 26915
*Codespace EPSG
*Version 6.13(3.0.1)


Spatial Data Properties 

Vector
*Level of topology for this dataset  geometry only


Geometric objects
Feature class name
*Object type  composite
*Object count 977



ArcGIS Feature Class Properties
Feature class name
*Feature type Simple
*Geometry type Polygon
*Has topology FALSE
*Feature count 977
*Spatial index TRUE
*Linear referencing FALSE



Distribution 

Distribution format
*Name File Geodatabase Feature Class


Fields 

Details for object 
*Type Feature Class
*Row count 977


Field OBJECTID
 
*Alias OBJECTID
*Data type OID
*Width 4
*Precision 0
*Scale 0
*Field description
Internal feature number.

*Description source
Esri

*Description of values
Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.





Field name
 
*Alias name
*Data type String
*Width 25
*Precision 0
*Scale 0




Field county
 
*Alias county
*Data type String
*Width 10
*Precision 0
*Scale 0




Field comments
 
*Alias comments
*Data type String
*Width 254
*Precision 0
*Scale 0




Field SHAPE
 
*Alias SHAPE
*Data type Geometry
*Width 0
*Precision 0
*Scale 0
*Field description
Feature geometry.

*Description source
Esri

*Description of values
Coordinates defining the features.





Field SHAPE_Length
 
*Alias SHAPE_Length
*Data type Double
*Width 8
*Precision 0
*Scale 0
*Field description
Length of feature in internal units.

*Description source
Esri

*Description of values
Positive real numbers that are automatically generated.





Field SHAPE_Area
 
*Alias SHAPE_Area
*Data type Double
*Width 8
*Precision 0
*Scale 0
*Field description
Area of feature in internal units squared.

*Description source
Esri

*Description of values
Positive real numbers that are automatically generated.







Metadata Details 

*Metadata language English (UNITED STATES)
*Metadata character set  utf8 - 8 bit UCS Transfer Format


Scope of the data described by the metadata* dataset
Scope name* dataset


*Last update 2019-01-28


ArcGIS metadata properties
Metadata format ArcGIS 1.0
Metadata style ISO 19139 Metadata Implementation Specification
Standard or profile used to edit metadata ISO19139


Created in ArcGIS for the item 2019-01-28 21:38:04
Last modified in ArcGIS for the item 2019-01-28 21:51:11


Automatic updates
Have been performed Yes
Last update 2019-01-28 21:51:11


FGDC Metadata (read-only)