1856 Sketch of the Public Surveys in the State of Arkansas
DESCRIPTION
This detailed government survey map captures Arkansas as federal surveyors completed the systematic division of the state into townships and sections for settlement, sale and development.
Prepared under Surveyor General Henry M. Rector in 1856, the map overlays Arkansas with the rectangular grid of the federal public land survey while identifying towns, rivers, land offices and other geographic features. A reference key distinguishes the status of individual surveys, providing a detailed record of the federal government's progress in measuring and organizing the state's public lands.
Surveying Arkansas
Arkansas presented surveyors with a varied landscape stretching from the Ozark and Ouachita highlands to the broad Mississippi lowlands. Particularly notable are the extensive areas identified as swamp and overflowed lands, especially in eastern Arkansas, where wetlands and seasonal flooding complicated both surveying and settlement. The map also identifies railroad reservations and land offices, illustrating how the public land system was increasingly connected to transportation and economic development during the 1850s.
Along the western side of the state appear the Old Cherokee Line, Cherokee Boundary Line and Choctaw Boundary Line, reminders of the profound territorial changes that preceded Arkansas's development. These boundaries record earlier divisions between Arkansas and lands assigned to Native peoples removed westward into Indian Territory. By 1856, the survey grid covered nearly the entire state, making this map an informative record of how federal surveying, Native American boundaries, transportation projects and Arkansas's difficult physical geography shaped the settlement of the state in the years immediately before the Civil War.
CONDITION
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