Plat is a term for a survey of a piece of land to identify boundaries,
easements, flood zones, roadway, and access rights of way. It is the
legal description of a specific piece of real property and is required
if land is to subdivided for building homes, creating parks, and
setting aside rights of way.
Plat books map out land ownership. They will show you the shape of
parcels of land and provide the name of individual land owners.
Yes, indeed—plat books are a quintessentially Midwestern thing!!!
A bit of history:
The first locally published U.S. land ownership maps appeared in the
late 18th and early 19th century in southern New England, New York and
Pennsylvania (copper plate). Publishing was dominated by commercial
publishers and often was subscription-based.
By mid-19th century Chicago emerged as the center for the publication of
lithographed land ownership maps, plat books, and county atlases. The
customer base was largely Midwestern.
Golden age was from 1860-1890 with colorful wall maps and county
atlases that farm families and small town families acquired as heirloom
pieces.
By the end of the 19th century more simple black-and-white plat books
and maps start to predominate (simplification).
Lately, color is making a comeback. Satellite images, aerial
photography and county road maps can be found in recent publications.
Cheers!
-Heiko
Heiko Mühr
Special Collections Cataloger
Monographic Cataloging Image Unit
Indiana University Libraries
Herman B Wells Library E350
1320 East Tenth Street
Bloomington, IN 47405-3907, USA
(812) 855-2059
Quoting sue hawkins <[log in to unmask]>:
> Pardon my ignorance - as I am from a different part of the country &
> haven't mapped in the Midwest - What is a county plat book? Has it to do
> with the PLS or something like that?
>
> D'oh!
>
> Thank you all for your tolerance,
>
> ---sue h
>
>
> On Wednesday, May 6, 2015, Weessies, Kathleen <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>> Athentic, Inc of LaPorte, Indiana has gone out of business. They still
>> have some stock to sell off.
>>
>>
>>
>> If you collect county plat books of Indiana or Michigan, you could give
>> them a call and see what they still have. They?re very cheap ? only $20
>> each.
>>
>>
>>
>> 219-362-8508
>>
>> http://athenticinc.com/
>>
>>
>>
>> Kathleen Weessies
>>
>> Geosciences Librarian; Head, Map Library
>>
>> Michigan State University
>>
>> Main Library
>>
>> 366 W. Circle Drive, W308
>>
>> East Lansing, MI 48824
>>
>> 517-884-0849
>>
>> [log in to unmask] <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml',[log in to unmask]);>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
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