TheWeekInCongress.com

Week Ending May 21, 2004

S 1167 To resolve boundary conflicts in Barry and Stone Counties in the State of Missouri

BRIEF

   The bill would establish procedures for resolving the status of Federal land in Barry and Stone County, Missouri, which is claimed by private property owners. The ownership claims are based on land surveys prior to the Public Land Survey System surveys on which the original land patents were issued to the Federal Government.

   The Secretaries of Army or Agriculture would be directed, upon receiving notification of a boundary conflict from a qualifying claimant, to convey and quitclaim all right, title, and interest of the United States in the overlapping land; or if there are Federal interests in such land, to confirm Federal title to it and retain it in Federal management, while compensating the qualifying claimant.

Sponsor: Christopher S. Bond (R-MO)

Vote: Passed Senate by unanimous consent.

Cost to the taxpayer: Less than $500 thousand yearly.

MORE INFORMATION

   The land disputed land is located in the vicinity of the Cassville District of the Mark Twain National Forest in Barry and Stone Counties adjacent to Table Rock Lake.

   The bill’s sponsor, Senator Bond, explained that during the 1970's, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, using private land surveyors, surveyed the area around Table Rock Lake. Most of the original ``corner monuments'' or boundary lines laid out by the U.S. General Land Office, (GLO) in its original land surveys performed in the 1840's were either lost, stolen or had eroded over the years. Because of this, Corps surveyors used existing de-facto land markers in the vicinity of the original GLO monuments as the basis for its new survey. Prior to the Corps surveys, these defacto monuments were recognized by local surveyors as legitimate boundary markers and were used in survey after survey over the decades, he said.

   “For almost 30 years, private landowners in Barry and Stone Counties bought and sold their land based on the surveys performed by the Corps in the 1970's,” he said. “However, several years ago, the USFS performed new land surveys using surveying technology that had only recently become available. As a result of these new surveys, the USFS now claims that the boundary lines in its surveys conflict with the boundary lines established in the previous corps surveys. In addition to this, the USFS has announced that the Corps surveys are incorrect and that property lines all over this area are in the wrong place. Because of these new revelations, many private property owners in the vicinity of the Mark Twain National Forest, who bought and paid for their land in good faith based on a previous Federal Government survey, are now being told that they have encroached on USFS land.” ##All Rights Reserved. No reproduction or distribution without written permission from TheWeekInCongress.com.