The General Land Office conducted the original public land surveys across 30 states from the early 1800s through the early 1900s. The deputy surveyors who ran those lines kept detailed field notes recording every corner set, every bearing tree blazed, and every distance chained. Those notes are the legal foundation of every PLSS corner — and they are publicly available.
Where to Find GLO Field Notes
The Bureau of Land Management's GLO Records portal (glo-entry-prod.blm.gov) hosts scanned field notes, survey plats, and dependent resurvey documents going back to the 1790s. Corner-Plot's GLO Records tab links directly to the relevant documents for any corner's township-range-section, using the PLSSID→DMID index to build the direct document URL.
What the Notes Describe
For each corner set during the original survey, the deputy surveyor recorded:
- The corner type (Township Corner, Section Corner, Quarter-Section Corner, Meander Corner)
- The monument set: stone post, mound of earth, wooden post, or in some cases just a pit
- Bearing trees (witness trees) identified by species, diameter, blazed face, distance, and direction
- Any notable terrain, streams, roads, or other features intersected along the line
- The chained distance from the preceding corner
Using Field Notes for Corner Recovery
Original bearing trees are rarely standing today, but the notes tell you the species and approximate diameter of what was present. A 2026 field crew recovering an 1888 survey corner in a timber area can use the notes to understand the original terrain and narrow the search radius. When a stone post or mound-of-earth monument is described, the notes give the only available original position description.
Dependent Resurveys
When the original monuments are lost and the BLM re-establishes a corner through a dependent resurvey, a new set of field notes is created under the GLO/BLM system. These resurvey notes describe the evidence accepted, the methods used to restore the position, and any accessories set during the resurvey. They are linked in Corner-Plot's GLO Records tab alongside the original notes.