2805, 2020
2805, 2020
1838 – 1840 Map of Oakland County – Bela Hubbard, Surveyor
Created sometime between 1838 and 1840, these maps provide a really great view into the county at the time.
Maps and Map Resources
The OCPHS Online Map Collection These are the maps we love! To learn how to get the most out of these maps, please take a moment and watch this great video by Carol Bacak-Egbo, historian for Oakland County Parks: Using Historic Maps – Facebook Video by Carol Bacak-Egbo 1838 – 1840 Oakland County Maps Sometime between 1838 and 1840, Bela Hubbard, a prominent Detroit land speculator, surveyed Oakland County.
Reading the 1817 Maps
Ok all you map nerds, here’s how to interpret these early survey maps. This is Pontiac Township, or in survey-speak, Township 3 North, Range 11 East. You can see it’s a grid pattern. The township itself is 6 square miles, so each box in the grid is one square mile, and are called sections. Surveyors walked the lines making up the grid, creating it as they went. They started at
1817 Early Survey of Oakland County
In 1815, the Surveyor General of the United States was a man named Edward Tiffin, the former governor of Ohio. In that year, he ordered a survey of the Michigan Territory at the request of Congress, who were granting bounty lands to the veterans of the War of 1812. This survey wasn’t completed – the survey crews reported that the territory was an “interminable swamp” and not fit for agriculture
1905, 2020