Big Pigeon - Pottawattamie County, Iowa
  • Pigeon Home
    • Usage Hints
    • Acknowledgments
    • Resources >
      • Free Sites
      • Pay Sites
      • Print Resources
      • Search Engines
      • Land Records
      • Resources - Denmark >
        • Finding Danish Ancestors
    • Project Mgt - Public >
      • Website Overview
      • Website Log
      • Project Overview
      • Mac Computer Use
      • Weebly Use
      • Reunion Use
      • Project History
      • Image Provenance
    • Project Mgt - Private >
      • Site Management
      • Site Plan
      • Contact List
      • Backup Info & Log
      • System Info & Log
      • Image Storage
      • E-Mail Log
      • Asset Organization
      • History Index
      • Binders & Photos
      • Upon My Death
      • Donations & Dispersal
  • Family
    • Photos - Recent
    • Christiansen
    • Rasmussen
    • Christiansen/Rasmussen News
    • Larsen/Larson
    • Hansen
    • Larsen/Hansen News
    • Allied Families
    • Wall of Honor
  • St. Paul's
    • Early Families >
      • Early Families Help
      • Early Families More Lists
    • St. Paul's Roots
    • St. Paul's Timeline
    • St. Paul's Resources
  • PottCo
    • Early History >
      • Missouri River
      • Native Americans
      • Colonial Period
    • Pott. Co. History
    • Big Pigeon Area >
      • Area Towns >
        • Beebeetown
        • Crescent
        • Honey Creeek
        • Loveland
        • Neola
        • Persia
        • Underwood
        • Weston
        • Lost Locales
      • Danes from Dronninglund
      • Maps & Plats
      • Big Pigeon Galleries >
        • Gallery 1 - Area Historic Structures
        • Gallery 2 - Grange Sunday School
    • Avoca >
      • Gold Star Avoca
      • Cuppy's Grove
    • Pott. Co. Addendum
    • LDS History >
      • LDS Links
      • Gallery 1 - Mormon Maps
    • A House Divided >
      • Endnotes
      • Niels Peder Pedersen
      • Ane Katrine Pedersen
      • Kirsten Pedersen
      • Kirsten's Story >
        • Kirsten's LDS Daughters
        • Kirsten's Daughter, Karen Bondo
        • Kirsten's Son, Anders Johnson
        • Kirsten's Niece, Christine Mortensen
        • Kirsten's Niece, Anne Marie Larsen
    • More History >
      • Iowa History
      • American History
  • WWII Home
    • Big Pigeon and WWII
  • WWII Roster
    • Roster Records >
      • Roster-A
      • Roster-B
      • Roster-C
      • Roster-D
      • Roster-EF
      • Roster-G
      • Roster-H
      • Roster-IJ
      • Roster-K
      • Roster-L
      • Roster-M
      • Roster-NO
      • Roster-P
      • Roster-QR
      • Roster-S
      • Roster-TUV
      • Roster-WXYZ
    • Roster Appendices >
      • Other In-Service Deaths
      • Post-Separation Deaths
    • Roster Residences >
      • Council Bluffs
      • Rural Pott. Co.
      • Cass Co.
      • Harrison Co.
      • Mills Co.
      • Montgomery Co.
      • Shelby Co.
      • Other SW Iowa Counties
      • Other Iowa Counties
      • StatesBorderingIowa
      • Other States
    • Roster Fatalities >
      • War with Japan
      • Battle of the Atlantic
      • Mediterranean Theater
      • European Theater
      • Stateside Deaths
    • Roster Notes >
      • The Air Dead
      • The Sea Dead
      • Awards for Valor
      • Roster Demographics
      • Iowa Casualties & Dead
    • Roster Photos >
      • Roster Photos - Contents
      • Photos of Individuals
      • Land War with Japan
      • Air War with Japan
      • Sea War with Japan
      • Land War with Germany
      • Air War with Germany
      • Sea War with Germany
      • Stateside
      • Memorials
      • Cemeteries
    • Roster Outliers >
      • Pott. Co. Discrepancies
    • About the Roster >
      • Roster Planning
      • Members Not in St. Paul's
    • Roster Attic >
      • Recent Roster Additions
      • Roster Additions Log
  • WWII US
    • WWII Operations
    • WWII Overview
    • WWII Commanders
    • WWII Web Sources >
      • Web Sources - Personnel
      • Web Sources - Japan
      • Web Sources - Germany
    • WWII Personnel >
      • WWII Casualties
      • WWII Deaths
      • WWII Burials
      • Service Numbers
    • WWII Ground Forces >
      • High Level Organization
      • Infantry Organization >
        • Infantry Equipment
      • Ground Forces - Japan
      • Ground Forces - The MTO
    • WWII in The Air
    • WWII at Sea
    • WWII at Home
    • Civilian Victims
    • Strategic Bombing
    • The Cold War
    • World War I >
      • Iowa In World War I
  • Japan
    • WWII - Japan Overview
    • Japan Ascendant
    • Japan Lashes Out >
      • Pearl Harbor
      • Guam & Wake Island
      • Malaya & Singapore Lost
      • The Dutch Indies Lost
      • The Philippines Lost
      • New Guinea & Solomons
    • Japan Overreaches >
      • Coral Sea
      • Midway
    • South & SW Pacific >
      • Solomons Naval War
      • Solomon Is., Guadalcanal
      • SE New Guinea, Papua
      • NE New Guinea, Lae to Madang
      • Solomon Is., New Georgia
      • Solomon Is., Bougainville
      • Bismarck Archipelago
      • Western New Guinea
    • North Pacific >
      • Alaska
      • Attu & Kiska
      • Pacific Lend-Lease Routes
    • Central Pacific >
      • Gilbert Islands
      • Marshall Islands
      • Mariana Islands
      • Palau Islands
    • Philippines Liberated >
      • Leyte
      • Battle of Leyte Gulf
      • Philippines Naval War
      • Luzon
      • Southern Philippines
    • Iwo Jima & Okinawa >
      • Iwo Jima
      • Land Battle of Okinawa
      • Naval Battle of Okinawa
    • China-Burma-India >
      • China - 1941-45
      • India - 1942-45
      • Burma - 1941-45
      • Crossing the Hump
    • Japan Overpowered >
      • Japan Under Attack
      • Strategic Air War - Japan
      • Japan Vanquished
    • US Naval War w/ Japan >
      • US Submarine Force
      • Third & Fifth Fleets
    • US Air Force War w/ Japan >
      • Fifth Air Force
      • Seventh Air Force
      • Thirteenth Air Force
    • The Pacific Base Areas
  • Germany
    • WWII-Germany Overview
    • Battle of the Atlantic
    • The MTO >
      • MTO Overview >
        • MTO Background
      • North Africa >
        • Operation Torch
        • The Race to Tunis
        • Tunisia
      • Italy >
        • Sicily
        • Italy Leaves the Axis
        • Salerno-Naples-Foggia
        • To the Gustav Line
        • Battle of Anzio
        • Cassino/the Gustav Line
        • Cassino to Rome
        • Rome To Florence
        • Northern Apennines
        • The Po Valley
      • MTO Air War
      • MTO Sea War
      • MTO Comm. Zone
    • The ETO >
      • ETO Overview >
        • ETO Background
      • ETO Orders of Battle >
        • ETO Unit Subordination
      • Normandy Campaign >
        • D-Day
        • ETO, 6 June 1944
        • Normandy, June 1944
        • ETO, 30 June 1944
        • Normandy, July 1944
        • After D-Day
      • Liberation >
        • Operation Cobra
        • ETO, 1 August 1944
        • Brittany
        • Normandy
        • Northern France & Belgium
        • ETO, 25 August 1944
        • Southern France
      • War of Attrition >
        • ETO, 15 September 1944
        • Netherlands 1944
        • Rhineland 1944 >
          • V Corps at the West Wall
          • Aachen
          • Hürtgen Forest
          • Operation Queen
          • Queen/Hürtgen
          • Last 1944 Offensives
        • Lorraine/Alsace 1944 >
          • Lorraine/Third Army
          • Lorraine/Seventh Army
          • Alsace/Seventh Army
        • ETO, 15 December 1944
      • Ardennes/The Bulge >
        • Before the Bulge
        • The Bulge Begins
        • The Bulge Grows
        • Ardennes, 25 December 1944
        • The Bulge Contained
        • The Bulge Eliminated
        • Ardennes/Bulge Details
        • Ardennes/Bulge Overview
      • Alsace 1945 >
        • Alsace, Nordwind
        • Alsace, Colmar Pocket
      • Siegfried Line 1945 >
        • ETO, 26 January 1945
        • Operation Blackcock
        • First US Effort
        • Roer River Dams
        • VIII Corps to Prüm
        • XII Corps to Bitburg
        • XX Corps to Trier
      • To the Rhine >
        • ETO, 1 March 1945
        • Ops. Veritable & Grenade
        • Operation Lumberjack
        • Operation Undertone
        • Patton's Probing Attacks
        • Ninth & First Armies
        • Third & Seventh Armies
      • Central Europe >
        • Crossing the Rhine
        • Beyond the Rhine
        • ETO, 4 April 1945
        • Central Germany
        • Southern Germany
        • Germany Surrenders
      • ETO Air War
      • ETO Sea War
      • ETO Comm. Zone
    • The Eastern Front
Picture
Picture
Pottawattamie County
Composite GLO Pottawattamie County Map
GLO Index
Pottawattamie County Townships
Current Index
Big Pigeon Area
bigpigeon.us webpage Pott. Co. > Big Pigeon Area > Maps & Plats, updated by RAC 16 Apr 2021.

​This is a sister webpage to Home > Resources > Land Records, background information about land organization in most of the United States.

Pottawattamie County Congressional Townships and Political Townships
  • The GLO Index map above shows the survey townships, sometimes called congressional townships, produced by the GLO (Government Land Office) survey begun in 1851. As shown on the first map, standard Iowa survey townships, each a square six miles by six miles in size,  are identified by a township number (T) and a range number (R).
  • ​The Current Index map above shows today's political townships and incorporated towns in Pottawattamie County. ​

The original survey townships and the subsequent political townships often differ in extent. In the following six northwestern Pottawattamie County townships, note that Rockford political township consists of the portions of two survey townships on the Iowa side of the Missouri River, while today's Crescent Township is a portion of one survey township.
  • Click on a button below to see the corresponding GLO survey map for that survey township. (for Rockford Township, only T77N, R44W is shown)
  • You can find these GLO land survey maps, identified by township and range number, at https://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/islandora/search/pottawattamie?type=edismax&cp=ui%3Aglo. ​

Picture
Rockford Twp. - T77N, R44&45W
Picture
Boomer Twp. -  T77N, R43W
Picture
Neola Twp. - T77N, R42W

Picture
Crescent Twp., T76N, R44W
Picture
Hazel Dell Twp., T76N, R43W
Picture
Norwalk Twp. - T76N, R42W

Below are links to some high-resolution plat files for portions of townships in the Big Pigeon locale.
  • The file name includes the township, the school subdistrict or sections, and the plat year (1885, 1902, 1913, 1919, 1967).

Plats of Boomer Township school subdistricts:
Subdistrict #9 (SW Boomer Twp.):
  • Boomer#9-1885-IMG_6065.jpg
  • Boomer#9-1902-IMG_6066.jpg
  • Boomer#9-1913-IMG_6067.jpg
  • Boomer#9-1919-IMG_6069.jpg
  • Boomer#9-1967-IMG_6070.jpg

Plats of Hazel Dell Township school Subdistricts:
Subdistrict #3, the Oakdale School (NW Hazel Dell Twp.):
  • HazelDell#3-1885-IMG_6060.jpg
  • HazelDell#3-1902-IMG_6061.jpg
  • HazelDell#3-1913-IMG_6062.jpg
  • HazelDell#3-1919-IMG_6063.jpg
  • HazelDell#3-1967-IMG_6064.jpg

Other Sets of Big Pigeon area plats:
Holdings of Niels Larsen descendants (my great-grandfather) & John and Nora (Madison) Jensen family:
  • Hazel Dell Sec.8,9,10&15,16,17-1885
  • Hazel Dell Sec.8,9,10&15,16,17-1902
  • Hazel Dell Sec.8,9,10&15,16,17-1913
  • Hazel Dell Sec.8,9,10&15,16,17-1919
  • Hazel Dell Sec.8,9,10&15,16,17-1967 

Timeline - Pottawattamie County area land:
  • 1848 (21 Sep) - Pottawattamie County organized.
  • 1851 (15 Jan) - Pottawattamie County reduced to current size by establishment of other counties, including neighboring counties of Harrison, Shelby, Cass., Montgomery and Mills.
  • 1851 - Survey of Pottawattamie County area land began. Survey extended into 1852.
  • 1853 (12 Mar) - Council Bluffs Land Office opened for preemption law purchases, purchases by individuals who had already settled and made improvements to a parcel of land. 
  • 1853 (7 Jun) - Council Bluffs Land Office opened to the general public. In the next several years much of the land was acquired by speculators using land warrants issued to veterans of previous conflicts; those using cash typically paid $1.25 per acre. A purchaser received a land patent, a title document showing that he or she was the owner, free and clear, of the specified tract of land.
  • 1856 (31 May) Council Bluffs Land Office temporarily closed (except for preemption law purchases) while land grants to railroads were prepared.
  • 1858 (23 Feb) Council Bluffs Land Office reopened to the general public.
  • 1863 (1 Jan) First Council Bluffs Land Office entry under the 1862 Homestead Law.
  • 1873 (May) Council Bluffs Land Office permanently closed. Remaining business was handled by the Des Moines Land Office.
Commentary:
  • Much Pottawattamie County land remained owned by speculators and unfarmed into the 1870s. Some speculators (such as the Graham family) continued to own land, which they rented out to farmers (such as my bachelor great-uncle, Hans Peter Hansen), into the 1940s.

Sources for Big Pigeon's Pott. Co. > Big Pigeon Area > Maps & Plats webpage:
  • The Pott. Co. Current Index map in the page heading is courtesy of Dennis Weeks/iagenweb.org/Pottawattamie.
Proudly powered by Weebly