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The OK-KS Border
A strip roughly two miles wide was added to the south side of Kansas about 1872. Finally have a job in a section with the original line crossing it. The north portion of the section was surveyed in 1866. The majority (south portion) was surveyed in 1872.
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5 Replies
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Was that one of the many state lines that had to have a supreme court decision to settle a dispute?
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I believe the issue here relates to which Tribes held claim to which areas as noted in the early part of the very long story found HERE:
https://www.kshs.org/p/surveying-the-southern-boundary-line-of-kansas/12540
The Osage Tribe held a sizable swath from east to west beginning 25 miles west of the west edge of Missouri. They made a treaty in September 1865 for the area of interest to my survey. The south line of the Osage land was roughly two miles north of the parallel that is mentioned in the linked story. The relinquishment of Quapaw and Cherokee lands came later. Thus, this little strip was not technically part of Kansas until the Quapaw and Cherokee agreed.
The Osage lands in this area were surveyed in the 1865/1866 timeframe. The later work in the strip is dated 1872. So, my Section 5 was started in 1866 and completed in 1872.
It may be of interest that the first 25 miles going west from Missouri was Cherokee lands that could be “owned” by individuals within the Tribe rather than by the Tribe as a whole. This ran northward for 50 miles, the same as the Osage lands.
Today’s project work was further to the northwest and involved the north boundary of what was known as the Osage Diminished Reserve, which was basically hunting area stretching much farther to the west across southern Kansas. That boundary slices across a string of sections numbered from 1 to 6 roughly a quarter mile south of the township line. The north half of these sections consist of eight lots. The south half is standard. Lot 1 is in the northeast corner, Lot 4 is in the northwest corner with Lot 5 below it, and Lot 8 is below Lot 1. FYI. the west line of my section had a total north-south measurement of 81.43 chains. The south 40 being along the southwest quarter. The next 15.23 being along Lot 5 and the final 26.20 being along Lot 4. But there is a kink at the Lot 4/Lot 5 juncture as the survey from the north and the survey from the south were not perfectly aligned. That is normal.
And, to think, some people actually believe everything in PLSSia is square and precisely 5280 by 5280.
A special twist to the last situation is that the record does not indicate a measurement from the northeast corner of the Section 1’s down the the ODR boundary line. The measurements north from the southeast corner of the Section 1’s to the ODR boundary are recorded, however. Anyone’s guess what the missing measurement and bearing happen to be.
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This is good stuff here… I would be interested in seeing your plat when it is all said and done.
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Sorry. The plat will be very dull for the job close to the Oklahoma border as we only needed the southeast corner and south quarter corner to cut out an 8-acre tract around the farmstead.
The other job, involving the Osage Diminished Reserve boundary, became simpler once I found DOT references for the ODR boundary corners and then recovered both.
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I understand – Thanks for sharing the info though, I learned something 🙂
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