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Survey The Flats

Survey The Flats image
Parent Issue
Day
4
Month
August
Year
1899
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Prof. J.B. Davis Will Have Charge of Work

ST. CLAIR FLATS PLAT.

Requires Monuments to Be Placed in the Water.

Some Fifty Miles of Shore Line to be Platted in Lots of Two Hundred Feet Frontage by the State of Michigan.

On Monday Prof. J. B. Davis, who was recently appointed by the state land commissioner to survey the St. Clair Flats, went up and looked over his field of labor. He had not yet been on the ground since his appointment. Nor has he as yet selected his assistants of whom he will have a dozen or 15. He is in correspondence with a number of his former students and will soon have his list of assistants made up. Prof. Davis is an experienced man in his kind of work and the state, through Land Commissioner French, has shown wisdom in selecting him for this important survey.

There are at least 50 miles of shore line and all the area included in this distance and lying along the three channels, known as the north, middle and south channels is to be surveyed and divided up into lots of 200 feet frontage on the channels and extending back 500 feet, excepting where the channels are less than 1,000 feet apart and then the lots are to extend back to the middle of the intervening area. At the corners of each and every one of these lots a permanent monument is to be erected. What this monument is to consist of has not yet been determined. Now when it is understood that all this work is to be done under water, the magnitude of the undertaking can be partially appreciated. The water over this whole area will vary from a foot or two to six feet in depth. The professor has developed no plan as to just how this work shall be done, but thinks it will have to be done while the water is open, for when it is frozen the channels are obliterated so that there are no points to work from in laying out lots.

This work all grows out of an act passed at the last session of the legislature providing for the sale, disposition and control of the unpatented swamp and overflowed lands in the township of Clay, St. Clair county. As is well understood, much of this land has been improved by various clubs and individuals, but none of these have any title to the lands. In fact it is not clear whether this land was conveyed to the state or not as it is not clear just what the rightful classification of the land is. Three principal objects were had in view in passing the before mentioned act, viz:

  • 1st. To determine in whom the title to these lands lies.
  • 2d. To fix it so those who have made improvements there may secure a title.
  • 3d. To determine the right of St. Clair County to tax this property.

The act of the legislature assumes, of course, that the title to these lands is in it and provides for the issuance of patents to purchasers. The act appears to be an earnest effort to settle all existing disputes as to claims in this territory upon an equitable basis. The act provides that no claim to these lands shall be valid unless the party making the claim has made improvements upon the premises to the amount of $100, and claimed ownership on or before Jan. 1st, 1899. When the claim is less than 100 feet front, the amount of improvement shall be not less than one dollar per front foot. No claim under the act for more than 200 feet frontage is allowed to any one person, but when the claimant is an association or club a frontage of 25 feet for each member on Jan. 1st, 1899, may be granted. But if a single claimant has improved and occupied more than 200 feet frontage, he may receive a patent therefor, in the discretion of the commissioner of the land office. Lands platted but not awarded to any claimant are to be appraised by three appraisers appointed by the land commission and may be sold by the commissioner at public or private sale. The price of lands to claimants are to be computed by reference to frontage on natural, navigable channels at $1 per front foot on South channel, 50 cents per foot on North channel and 25 cents on the Middle channel, and on all artificial channels at such price as the commissioner may fix. Lands not lying contiguous to any natural, navigable channel, and not included in the surveys of the commissioner are reserved for the use of the people as a hunting and fishing resort, and this resort is placed under the care and supervision of the state game warden who is required to make all needed rules and regulations. The commission is also authorized to lease unoccupied land for a period not exceeding three years.

It will be seen that the act fixes the prices for these lands at a very low figure and also grants a patent for them. This of course compels the state to defend the titles so given and it is thought that claimants will prefer to pay this nominal sum and get a title from the state which the state thus binds itself to defend, rather than to defend their claims in court themselves.

Prof. Davis has the idea that the platting and laying out of these lands is going to be a much larger job than the state anticipates. The professor is enthusiastic for the work and anxious to begin. He thinks the work of surveying will not be devoid of interest when it has to be done in water over a man's head in depth.