Carving the land

TL;DR -- So, we got the gift of the Louisiana Purchase from New Spain and New France after they grabbed the land from the American Indians. Then, St. Louis was the nexus of a carving that is so common. We started with this in New England 400 years ago. Well, all along, technology allowed the fruition. Today, old ideas are still there along with the improvements. What we want to do is thread over a spectrum some view via lives within families around and about at the different times. Spectrum? 400, 300, 250, 200, 100. And, various combinations can apply. Now, the 250th? Coming up. The Declaration of Independence which was celebrated recently if it was not forgotten due to the lure of hot dogs and brew. 

--

Lately, we have spent lots of time on land issues out west. But, the world of the sea is important, too. So, we will keep a balance; one way will be to look at things from both sides while considering the differences. So, as the seas and oceans were huge and needed to be studied, so too was the interior of the U.S. when we got the increase via Jefferson's deal. The Bureau of Land Management has the responsibility to manage the public lands which includes having records of what was there and its deposition. We can track that through time as well as pay attention to the history, the people, and their genealogies. 

Case in point is Missouri and Arkansas. This book looks at the history of the counties in northwest Arkansas which is the southern border of Missouri: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, ... Counties of Arkansas (1889). Notice that it's published by Higginson. This is like the books that we have of the New England areas. Thousands of these accompanied the 300th lookback, albeit some were 1/2 century earlier. But, notice the topical articles, say, pioneer life or early settlers or what went into getting established and such. Given that Arkansas was of the Confederacy, there is a lot of local history. Remember, Missouri as declared as a State along with Maine, so we had a balance. And, we're talking years before Kansas. BTW, we have not gotten to Texas, yet.   

We mentioned that the Gardner guys were involved with surveying at Cape Ann and elsewhere (Merrimack). They were in good company. Both Washington and Jefferson were involved with surveying. So, too was Lincoln. This was, and still is, a regular function whose duties increased with Jefferson's deal. This image gives some indication of the size of the problem. 

The Public Land and Survey System is the current mode and represents how good systems persist. That above map is from 1988. Note, the colonies plus a few states are on another system. So too is Texas which requires special attention for several reasons. Canada uses its Dominion Land Survey. 

We look at this before when we were looking at rivers that headed out west and the creation of Ohio was part of the discussion. Of course, that was a New England deal, mostly. We are now a little further west and not much later in time. One difference is that we see a lost generation or two. 

Remarks: Modified: 09/03/2021

09/03/2021 --  The great northwest of the mid-east is where the practice of carving was honed out.