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Description

Fine example of one of the earliest obtainable maps focused on Wisconsin Territory.

The map extends west to the Falls of St. Anthony and Fort Snelling, and north to the Headwaters of the Montreal Reiver, Ontonagon River and the area north of Green Bay.

The only non-Indian settlements noted are Pairie du Chien and the Mormon settlement on the Mississippi River. The Mormons first settled near the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Black River in 1839, where they engaged in logging. The present settlement would become the Pinery Mission.

General Land Office Biography

The General Land Office (GLO) refers to the independent agency in the United States that was in charge of public domain lands. Created in 1812, it assumed the responsibilities for public domain lands from the United States Department of the Treasury. The Treasury had overseen the survey of the Northwest Territory, but as more area was added to the United States, a new agency was necessary to survey the new lands.

Eventually, the GLO would be responsible for the surveying, platting, and sale of the majority of the land west of the Mississippi, with the exception of Texas. When the Secretary of the Interior was created in 1849, the GLO was placed under its authority. Until the creation of the Forest Service in 1905, the GLO also managed forest lands that had been removed from public domain. In additional to managing the fees and sales of land, the GLO produced maps and plans of the areas and plots they surveyed. In 1946, the GLO merged with the United States Grazing Service to become the Bureau of Land Management.