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Archive: The Original 50-State Sample Picks
Historical research archive documenting the initial working candidate parcels locked during the design phase of YourLandHistory.org in October 2026.
Archival Context: Every state sample below was selected on public, state-trust, university, nonprofit, or historic-site land to illustrate how each state began. This master lock table preserves the foundational draft list that informed the 50 Places project.
To explore the live showcase complete with historical topographic maps, aerial photography, lidar elevation mapping, and full narratives, visit 50 States, 50 Places & 50 Stories.
| # | State | Locked Parcel Name | Location (County & PLSS / Cadastral Description) | One-Line Reason for Locking | Key Surviving Records | Source List |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama | Monte Sano State Park & Hurricane Valley Bench | Madison Co. · T3S, R1E, Secs. 16, 20 & 21, Huntsville Meridian | Surveyed in 1807–1809 on the Deep South's oldest PLSS grid, pairing a Mississippi Territory cash entry, karst springs, and an 1880s mountaintop hotel/railroad partition next to a Section 16 school tract. | 1809 Thomas Freeman GLO notes/plats; unburned Madison Co. deeds back to 1810 on FamilySearch; Madison GIS; CCC & State Park acquisition files. | Yours |
| 2 | Alaska | Rebarchek Colony Farm (1935 Matanuska Tract #52) | Matanuska-Susitna Borough · T17N, R2E, Sec. 4 (adjoining Sec. 16 trust land), Seward Meridian | A preserved 1935 New Deal lottery homestead (drawn by colonist Raymond Rebarchek) at the foot of Bodenburg Butte, showing 20th-century federal colonization and Alaska's school/mental-health trust redesign. | Mat-Su MyProperty GIS & online plat viewer; BLM 1910s–30s survey notes & patent; AK State Archives ARRC colonist files; NRHP nomination (1978); Palmer Recorder index. | Yours |
| 3 | Arizona | Fort Verde & Montezuma Well Pioneer Ditch Edge | Yavapai Co. · T14N/T15N, R5E, Secs. 31 & 36, Gila & Salt River Meridian | Combines an 1870s homestead/military reserve watered by a pioneer irrigation ditch (following prehistoric Sinagua canals) directly abutting an active Section 36 in Arizona's 4-section (2, 16, 32, 36) trust grid. | Yavapai Interactive GIS + scanned survey plats; ADWR Verde River water filings & well logs; BLM GLO notes; AZ State Land Dept. trust GIS; FamilySearch deeds to 1865. | Yours |
| 4 | Arkansas | Louisiana Purchase Initial Point & 1812 Bounty / Swamp Tract | Monroe / Lee / Phillips Co. · T1S, R1W & R1E, Secs. 1 & 16, 5th Principal Meridian | Sits at the 1815 baseline intersection where the Fifth Principal Meridian began, pairing a War of 1812 Military Bounty lottery patent with an 1850 Swamp Land state patent and 1930s tax-forfeiture redemption. | 1815 Prospect Robbins & Taylor Brown baseline field notes; BLM 1812 Warrant patents; AR Commissioner of State Lands digitized tract & tax-deed books; NRHP file. | Yours (Rank 2 swapped to #1 for variety) |
| 5 | California | Jack London State Historic Park (Rancho / PLSS Collision) | Sonoma Co. · T6N, R6W, Secs. 15, 16, 21 & 22, Mount Diablo Meridian | Straddles the boundary where Mexican Rancho Mallacomes / Los Guilicos collided with the PLSS grid and preempted Section 16 (forcing state lieu selections), with 1850s water rights and multi-parcel ranch assembly. | Sonoma County Surveyor online Historic & Rancho maps; Bancroft Diseños & Land Case files; SWRCB eWRIMS water certificates; State Parks files; FamilySearch deeds to 1850. | Yours |
| 6 | Colorado | Walker / Heil Valley Ranch Open Space & Left Hand Ditch Tract | Boulder Co. · T2N, R70W / R71W, Secs. 16 & 21, 6th Principal Meridian | Public open-space ranch on the Dakota Hogback pairing an 1860s homestead and an adjudicated "Colorado Doctrine" water-court ditch decree with a Colorado State Land Board Section 16 holding reserved minerals. | Boulder Co. online Recorder images (to 1950s), Surveyor plats & Open Space title files; CDSS Water Court decrees; CO State Land Board mineral GIS; FamilySearch to 1861. | Yours |
| 8 | Delaware | Cooch's Bridge State Historic Site & 1746 Mill Tract | New Castle Co. (Pencader & Mill Creek Hundreds) · 1680s–1740s Penn Proprietary Warrants | Recently expanded State Historic Site in a named Anglo-Saxon "Hundred," tracing a Duke of York / William Penn warrant, a 1746 mill race, 19th-century iron pits on lidar, and the 1796 Delaware School Fund. | DE Public Archives Penn Warrants/Surveys & deValinger Reconstructed Tract Maps; FirstMap GIS, 1m lidar & 1937 aerials; New Castle Deeds & Orphans' Court to 1670s. | Yours |
| 9 | Florida | Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings State Park (Arredondo Grant Edge) | Alachua Co. · T11S, R21E, Secs. 6 & 16 / Spanish Arredondo Grant, Tallahassee Meridian | Sits on the line where the 1817 Spanish Arredondo Grant and the 1842 Armed Occupation Act (forerunner of the Homestead Act) collide with the Tallahassee Meridian and displace Section 16 school land. | Alachua Clerk Ancient Records online (to 1820s); FL DEP LABINS GLO field notes, Spanish plats & TIIF swamp/school deeds; WPA Spanish translations; State Park files. | Yours |
| 10 | Georgia | New Echota State Historic Site (1832 Cherokee Land Lottery) | Gordon Co. (orig. Cherokee Co.) · 14th District, 3rd Section, 160-Ac Lottery Lots 147 & 148 | Surveyed on Georgia's state-built rectangular Land Lottery grid over the Cherokee Nation capital, pairing wax-seal lottery grants and 1836 Cherokee property valuations with the 1783/1817 Academy & Poor School Funds. | GA Virtual Vault 1832 Lottery Grant Books & District Plats; NARA RG 75 (1836 Cherokee Valuations); GSCCCA statewide deed/plat index; qPublic GIS; FamilySearch deeds. | Yours |
| 13 | Illinois | Dickson Mounds State Museum & Military Tract Bluff | Fulton Co. · T4N, R3E, Secs. 1, 12 & 16, 4th Principal Meridian | Inside the 1817 War of 1812 Military Bounty Tract, pairing a lottery veteran patent, an 1830s Patent-vs.-Tax-Title clash, Illinois River drainage district records, and itemized 1830s Section 16 school woodlot sales. | IL State Archives Public Domain & Sec. 16 Sales Database; BLM 1817 Military Warrant patents & GLO notes; Fulton Co. GIS; FamilySearch Military Deeds back to 1818. | Yours |
| 14 | Indiana | Vincennes University Commons & French Donation Collision | Knox Co. · T3N, R10W, 2nd Principal Meridian / 1788 Vincennes French Donation Survey | Where 45-degree Continental Congress French Donation Tracts and arpents slice across the 2nd Principal Meridian and Section 16, paired with the 1852 U.S. Supreme Court Vincennes University land-trust case. | IndianaMAP GIS & 1m lidar; BLM 1806 Vincennes Donation plats; American State Papers 1806 French claim proofs; 55 U.S. 268 (1852) record; FamilySearch deeds from 1814. | Yours |
| 15 | Iowa | Mines of Spain State Recreation Area (Dubuque Lead Bluffs) | Dubuque Co. · T88N, R3E, Secs. 5, 6, 8 & 16, 5th Principal Meridian | Spans Julien Dubuque's 1788 Meskwaki/Spanish lead claim (Chouteau v. Molony, 1853), 1830s federal War Dept. mineral leases, 1846 preemption patents, lidar lead pits, and the adjoining 1846 Section 16 school tract. | Statewide Iowa Land Records portal; Dubuque Beacon GIS; 1930s statewide aerials & 1m lidar; 57 U.S. 203 (1853) transcript; FamilySearch deeds & Sec. 16 patents to 1836. | Yours |
| 16 | Kansas | Nicodemus National Historic Site & Exoduster Homestead | Graham Co. · T8S, R21W, Secs. 1 & 16, 6th Principal Meridian | Founded in 1877 by Formerly Enslaved "Exodusters" from Kentucky, pairing digitized sod-house Homestead proof files and split-estate oil/gas mineral records with the township's 1861 Section 16 school tract. | Digitized NARA Homestead Final Proof files; NPS Historic Resource Study; KS ORKA GIS; KGS oil/gas & water well logs; FamilySearch Graham Co. deeds back to 1880. | Yours |
| 17 | Kentucky | McConnell Springs Historic Park (1779 Virginia Settlement) | Fayette Co. · Inner Bluegrass (1779 VA Land Commission Settlement & Preemption Tract) | Public karst-spring park on the 1775 campsite where Lexington was named, illustrating Virginia's 4-step metes-and-bounds system (Warrant $\rightarrow$ Entry $\rightarrow$ Survey $\rightarrow$ Patent), overlapping "shingle" claims, and 1798 Seminary Warrants. | KY Sec. of State free online scans of all VA/KY Warrants, Surveys & Patents; Fayette PVA GIS; KyFromAbove 2ft lidar; FamilySearch Fayette deeds & Burned Records to 1780s. | Yours |
| 18 | Louisiana | Laurel Valley Plantation Museum (40-Arpent Ribbon Farm) | Lafourche Parish · T15S, R17E, Claims/Secs. 45–48 (displacing Sec. 16), SE District | A confirmed 18th-century French/Spanish 40-arpent Bayou Lafourche ribbon farm demonstrating Napoleonic Civil Law Successions, 10-year mineral servitude prescription, and displaced Section 16 school indemnity scrip. | BLM radiating arpent township plats; LA State Land Office historical claims; SONRIS oil/gas/coastal GIS; FamilySearch Lafourche Notarial Acts & Successions to 1808; NRHP file. | Yours |
| 19 | Maine | Great Pond Mountain Wildlands & Orland Public Lot Edge | Hancock Co. (Town of Orland) · 1762/1786 Mass. Eastern River Township #2 | A 4,500-acre conservation woodlot in a Massachusetts Eastern Lands township where four 320-acre "Public Lots" were reserved for Schools and the Ministry, with 1-meter lidar showing colonial stone walls and mill dams. | Hancock Co. Registry free online deeds & Proprietor Plans back to 1790 (maineregistries.com); Maine GeoLibrary GIS & 1m lidar; Mass. Eastern Lands Archives on FamilySearch. | Yours |
| 20 | Maryland | Monocacy National Battlefield (Best Farm / Tasker's Chance) | Frederick Co. · 1727/1742 Lord Baltimore Named Patents "Tasker's Chance" & "Brothers Content" | Demonstrates Lord Baltimore's Named Tract & Patent of Resurvey system with 100% free online deeds back to 1748, paired with Maryland's 1723 Free School Act and 1781 creation of the U.S. Public Domain. | MDLandRec.net (free scans of all deeds 1748–2026); Plats.net (free survey plats); MSA Patented Certificates & Tracey colonial tract maps; NPS title files; MD iMAP 1m lidar. | Yours |
| 21 | Massachusetts | Historic Deerfield & Conway Proprietors' School-Share Woodlot | Franklin Co. (Towns of Deerfield & Conway) · 1670s Pocumtuck Deeds & 1760s Proprietors' Lots | Shows the colonial statutory ancestor of Section 16—the 1/63rd Massachusetts Town School Share—alongside an 1898 Massachusetts Land Court (Torrens) registration plan and lidar stone-wall archaeology. | MassLandRecords.com free online deeds (to 1687) & Land Court Torrens plans; MassGIS L3 parcels & 1m lidar; published Pocumtuck Indigenous deeds; Historic Deerfield archives. | Yours |
| 22 | Michigan | U-M Saginaw Forest & Stinchfield Woods (1837 School Fund Edge) | Washtenaw Co. · T2S, R5E, Secs. 16 & 26, Michigan Meridian | Owned by the University of Michigan since 1903, pairing an 1825 Erie Canal boom "Oak Opening" patent and 120 years of tree-planting records with the 1837 Section 16 that launched America's first statewide Primary School Fund. | MapWashtenaw GIS & online Surveyor Remonumentation (LCRC) corner files; 1816–25 GLO field notes; U-M Bentley Library forestry files; FamilySearch deeds & tract books to 1824. | Yours |
| 24 | Mississippi | Pontotoc Ridge / Lochinvar Chickasaw Reserve & 16th-Sec. Edge | Pontotoc Co. · T9S, R3E, Secs. 16, 20 & 29, Chickasaw Meridian | Inside the 1832 Treaty of Pontotoc Creek Cession (where the U.S. sold land as trustee for the Chickasaw Nation), pairing a named Chickasaw Reserve patent with the 1836 School Indemnity Act and active 16th-Section school leases. | Unburned Pontotoc Co. Deed Books (1836–1920) on FamilySearch showing Chickasaw reserve deeds; BLM Chickasaw Reserve patents; MS Sec. of State 16th-Section Lease GIS; NRHP file. | Yours |
| 25 | Missouri | Boone's Lick State Historic Site (New Madrid Certificate & Salt Tract) | Howard Co. · T49N, R17W, Spanish Survey # & Sec. 16, 5th Principal Meridian | Pairs Nathan and Daniel M. Boone's 1798 Spanish salt-spring grant with an overlapping 1815 New Madrid Earthquake Disaster Relief Certificate (America's first federal disaster scrip) and an 1820 Section 16 school patent. | MO Digital Heritage free scans of Spanish Land Claims, New Madrid Earthquake Certificates, and Township School Patent Books; BLM U.S. Survey plats; FamilySearch deeds to 1816. | Yours |
| 28 | Nevada | Dangberg Home Ranch Historic Park & 1880 2M-Acre School Grant | Douglas Co. · T12N/T13N, R20E, Secs. 6, 7 & 16, Mount Diablo Meridian | Public county historic ranch in Carson Valley illustrating Nevada's landmark 1880 Act (trading away waterless Sections 16 & 36 for a Two-Million-Acre selective grant of irrigated meadows) and Alpine Decree water rights. | Douglas Co. GIS & online Recorded Surveys; NV State Lands & BLM 1880 School Selection lists; NDWR Vested Water Rights & Alpine Federal Decree maps; FamilySearch deeds to 1861. | Yours |
| 29 | New Hampshire | Monadnock State Park / Poole Tract (1749 Masonian Grid) | Cheshire Co. (Town of Jaffrey) · 1749 Masonian Proprietors Range-and-Lot Grid (Ranges 6–8) | Surveyed on the private rectangular Range-and-Lot grid of the 1749 Masonian Proprietors (including a reserved Town School Share), with 1-meter lidar revealing dense colonial stone walls across reforested sheep pastures. | NH State Papers (Vols. 24–29) Masonian charter & lot maps; NH Provincial Deeds (1641–1771) & Cheshire Co. deeds on FamilySearch; nhdeeds.com; NH GRANIT 1m lidar. | Yours |
| 30 | New Jersey | Howell Living History Farm & Riparian School-Fund Creek Edge | Mercer / Hunterdon Co. (Hopewell Twp.) · 1700s Council of Proprietors of West NJ Survey | County-owned 1700s West Jersey corporate proprietary farmstead paired with New Jersey's constitutional Riparian Tidelands School Fund Compact (where ancient tidal creeks on a parcel belong to the public school fund). | NJ-GeoWeb (Parcels, School Fund Tidelands Claim Overlays, 1930 aerials, 1m lidar); NJ State Archives Early Proprietary Warrants/Surveys DB; FamilySearch deeds to 1785. | Yours |
| 32 | New York | Cornell Fall Creek / Botanic Gardens (1790 Military Lot & Morrill Hub) | Tompkins Co. (Town of Ithaca / Dryden) · 1790 NY New Military Tract, 600-Ac Lot & Gospel/School Lot | Sits in New York's state-surveyed 100-lot Classical Military Townships (which reserved a 600-acre "Gospel and School Lot" per town) and serves as the home base of Ezra Cornell's 990,000-acre 1862 Morrill Act scrip empire. | NYS GIS parcels & 1m lidar; 1825 NY Balloting Book; 1797 Onondaga Deed-Forgery Commission Awards; Cornell University Archives scrip ledgers; FamilySearch deeds to 1790. | Yours |
| 34 | North Dakota | Chateau de Mores State Historic Site & Bakken School Section 16 | Billings Co. · T140N, R102W, Secs. 16, 21 & 22, 5th Principal Meridian | Pairs an 1883 Northern Pacific RR odd-section patent (Marquis de Mores ranch/abattoir) and a 320-acre Enlarged Homestead with an adjoining Section 16 where North Dakota constitutionally retained 100% of oil/lignite minerals. | ND GIS Hub; ND Dept. of Trust Lands surface/mineral GIS; ND Oil/Gas & Water Commission well logs; SHSND de Mores archives; BLM GLO notes; FamilySearch deeds to 1883. | Yours |
| 36 | Oklahoma | OSU Cross Timbers Range & CLO 4-Purpose Trust Grid (Secs. 13, 16, 33, 36) | Payne Co. · T19N, R1E, Secs. 13, 16, 24 & 36, Indian Meridian | Combines an 1889 Land Run homestead (later acquired in the 1930s Lake Carl Blackwell New Deal project) with Oklahoma's unique 4-section trust grid: Secs. 16 & 36 (Schools), Sec. 13 (Colleges), and Sec. 33 (Public Bldgs). | OK Commissioners of the Land Office (CLO) Trust GIS; OKCountyRecords online deeds; OCC oil/gas & OWRB water wells; BLM 1889 Land Run proof files; OSU archives. | Yours |
| 38 | Pennsylvania | Graeme Park State Historic Site (Penn Warrantee Connected Draft) | Montgomery / Bucks Co. (Horsham Twp.) · 1718 William Penn Proprietary Warrant & Survey | Public PHMC historic farmstead mapped on Pennsylvania's Township Warrantee Connected Draft jigsaw map, illustrating Penn's 4-step patent process (with a Luzerne Co. "Yankee-Pennamite" School Lot & severed coal sidebar). | PHMC free online Township Warrantee Connected Draft maps, Warrant Registers & Survey Books; PASDA 1m lidar & 1937 Penn Pilot aerials; FamilySearch deeds & Orphans' Court to 1718. | Yours |
| 39 | Rhode Island | Casey Farm & 1657 Pettacomscott Purchase School Reserve | Washington Co. (Towns of North & South Kingstown) · 1657 Narragansett Sachem Deed | Nonprofit historic coastal farm in continuous tenure since the 1657 Pettacomscott Purchase from Narragansett Sachems, directly adjoining the proprietors' 300-acre School & Ministerial Reserve on stone-wall lidar. | RIGIS (Statewide Parcels, 1939 post-Hurricane blowdown aerials, 1m stone-wall lidar); RI Historical Society 1657 Proprietors' records; Town Land Evidence on FamilySearch to 1692. | Yours |
| 40 | South Carolina | Penn Center NHL & 1863 Lincoln Direct Tax Freedmen's Grid | Beaufort Co. (St. Helena Island) · 1863 U.S. Direct Tax Commission 10-Ac Rectangular Survey | Where President Lincoln's 1863 Tax Commissioners gridded Sea Island plantations into 10-acre lots for Formerly Enslaved Gullah-Geechee families and reserved tracts to endow the Beaufort Parish Public School Fund. | NARA RG 58/217 & SCDAH 1863 Direct Tax Plats, Freedmen's Certificates & School Reserves; SCDAH pre-1860 Royal Plats; Beaufort GIS; Penn Center archives & Heirs' Property files. | Yours |
| 41 | South Dakota | Spearfish Canyon (Roughlock Falls) Lode, Flume & School Sec. 16 | Lawrence Co. · T5N, R2E, Secs. 16, 20 & 30, Black Hills Meridian | Public state nature area on the isolated 1878 Black Hills Meridian where an 1880s homestead, an angled 1872 Mineral Survey lode patent, and an 1878 Homestake hydroelectric water right meet a Section 16 school tract. | Lawrence Co. GIS + downloadable Plats; SD DANR 1878 Vested Water Rights; BLM Lode Mineral Surveys & Homestead files; SD School & Public Lands GIS; FamilySearch deeds to 1877. | Yours |
| 42 | Tennessee | Red Clay State Historic Park (1836 State-Run Ocoee PLSS Grid) | Bradley Co. · T2S, R1W, Secs. 16 & 27, Ocoee District Basis Line (State-Built PLSS) | The last Cherokee Nation council ground before the 1838 Removal, surveyed by the State of Tennessee itself into a 36-section PLSS grid that reserved Section 16 for schools, with 1836 Cherokee property valuations. | TN Comptroller Property Viewer GIS; TSLA Ocoee District Entry/Grant Books & 1837 Plats; NARA RG 75 (1836 Cherokee Valuations); FamilySearch deeds; State Park karst spring files. | Yours |
| 45 | Vermont | UVM Morgan Horse Farm & Middlebury/New Haven Glebe Lease Lot | Addison Co. (Towns of Weybridge & New Haven) · 1761 Benning Wentworth NH Charter Lots | University-owned farm adjoining perpetual "As Long as Grass Grows and Water Runs" Town School, Glebe, and SPG Lease Lots—the exact ground of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1823 SPG v. Town of New Haven trust decision. | VCGI statewide parcels & 1m stone-wall lidar; Weybridge & New Haven Town Land & Lease Land records on FamilySearch (to 1761); 21 U.S. 464 (1823) transcript; UVM archives. | Yours |
| 46 | Virginia | McCormick Farm (VA Tech Research Center) & 1736 Beverley Manor | Augusta / Rockingham Co. · 1736 Beverley Manor Royal Patent (118,491-Ac Valley Grant) | Owned by Virginia Tech with an intact 1736–2026 deed chain (including English Lease-and-Release deeds and a working mill race), paired with Virginia's 1784 Northwest Cession and 1810 Literary Fund school compact. | Library of Virginia free online scans of all 1623–1992 Crown/State Patents & Chancery Partition Plats; VGIN GIS & 1m lidar; unburned Augusta Co. deeds to 1745 on FamilySearch. | Yours |
| 48 | West Virginia | Holly River / Kumbrabow Tract (School Commissioner Chancery Deed) | Webster / Randolph Co. · 1780s "Corn Right" vs. 1790s "Leviathan" Speculator Patent | Shows how overlapping 1780s pioneer Settlement Certificates and 100,000-acre speculator grants were forfeited to the 1863 WV Irreducible School Fund and cleared via a County Commissioner of School Lands Chancery suit. | WV Property Viewer GIS (showing separate Surface vs. Severed Coal/Gas tax accounts); online Sims Index to Land Grants; WVGES coal seam maps; FamilySearch Chancery & Deed books to 1787. | Yours |
| 49 | Wisconsin | Chippewa Moraine / Putnam Park (1862 NY Morrill Pine Scrip) | Chippewa / Eau Claire Co. · T27N/T31N, R8W, Secs. 16 & 21, 4th Principal Meridian Extended | Patented with New York's 1862 Morrill Act College Scrip located by Ezra Cornell on Chippewa Valley white pine (1837 Ojibwe Treaty cession), bordering a Wisconsin BCPL Section 16 Common School Fund tract. | Statewide 72-county WLIP GIS; UW/BCPL free online 1840s GLO plats & field notes; 1938 WHAIFinder aerials; County Certified Survey Maps (CSMs); Cornell scrip books; FamilySearch. | Yours |
| 50 | Wyoming | Trail End / Kendrick Ranch & Bighorn Split-Estate / Sec. 16 Edge | Sheridan Co. · T56N, R84W / T55N, R85W, Secs. 16 & 27, 6th Principal Meridian | Pairs an 1880s homestead and a 1916 Stock-Raising Homestead (with federal reserved coal) carrying an 1890 Elwood Mead Board of Control water certificate right beside an active Wyoming OSLI Section 16 lease. | Sheridan Co. Greenwood GIS (with free direct PDF links to recorded Deeds, Plats & Corners); WY SEO e-Permit water certificates; OSLI Trust GIS; BLM SRHA patents. | Yours |
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