- Dates
- 1847-08-07 – 1847-08-10
- Kind
- Observation
- Where
- North Fox Island · South Fox Island
- Eras
- Early American era
- Concepts
- land-surveyheritagemaritimetoponymy
- Within
- Beaver Island archipelago
Summary
The BLM record for N AND S FOX ISLANDS dates federal survey fieldwork from 7 through 10 August 1847. Its action metadata identifies Orange Risdon as Deputy Surveyor. The held field-note certification states that he surveyed and subdivided the South and North Fox Islands in Lake Michigan.
This is a single survey operation spanning both islands. It connects the Foxes to the early federal PLSS record while keeping fieldwork distinct from later certification, filing, approval, or map-publication dates.
Evidence and limits
The BLM metadata supplies the exact start and completion dates; the held page image was visually checked for the certification’s island names and survey statement. Neither source establishes prior Indigenous title, subsequent deed history, occupation, current acreage, or present ownership. The metadata’s patent-style acreage total is retained in the source note but is not treated as an island-by-island area measurement.
Open questions
- Which Fox shoreline descriptions and feature names in the preceding field notes can be transcribed accurately from the page images?
- How do the 1847 field notes relate to the approval dates and labels on the held T34N R13W and T35N R13W plat scans?
See also
Read the document
406 pages, rendered from the held scan.
Jump to a page — 406 in all
138 of 406 pages linked here — every page to 32, then every 4th, then the last 16. With JavaScript, every page.
Sources
- Held sanitized BLM detail metadata identifies the record as a Survey of Islands in T35N R13W, Michigan Meridian; gives Survey Commenced 1847-08-07 and Survey Completed 1847-08-10; names Orange Risdon as Deputy Surveyor in the action metadata; and links the survey to Field Note Volume 168138 and a related plat. The 1,974.95-acre value in metadata is not assigned here to either island or to a modern boundary. The holder's public portal is searchable but does not link this record directly; the archive holds a copy of the file and can provide it on request.federal · glo_surveys · beaver_island_surveys
- Visually verified certification page. Risdon swore that he had surveyed and subdivided South and North Fox Islands in Lake Michigan and that the preceding pages were the true original field notes. The document also bears later certification/file-copy dates; those are not substituted for the 1847 fieldwork dates supplied in the BLM Survey metadata. The holder's public portal is searchable but does not link this record directly; the archive holds a copy of the file and can provide it on request.federal · glo_field_notes · pdfs · 3879958517549955184-field-note-volume-168138
Added 2 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “Federal survey of North and South Fox Islands, 1847”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/federal-survey-of-north-and-south-fox-islands-1847/, accessed [date], citing Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records, Survey-31386, “N AND S FOX ISLANDS.” (and 1 further source listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-02. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
BibTeX for “Federal survey of North and South Fox Islands, 1847”RIS for “Federal survey of North and South Fox Islands, 1847”